tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26706281464255866652024-02-08T09:23:09.546-08:00(defunct)Icallshogunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505487017767411572noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670628146425586665.post-75832517594163949122016-06-09T11:15:00.000-07:002016-06-09T11:15:58.981-07:00This wasn't a great idea.<span id="docs-internal-guid-10cd2054-365f-a8b5-3942-81b7b31739e0"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I got a little out of hand, jumped the gun on this project. The original serial isn't finished, and trying to start editing it was a mistake. If you're interested, you can find it </span><a href="http://shiniwrites.blogspot.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">over here</span></a><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and I do recommend starting at </span><a href="http://shiniwrites.blogspot.com/2010/07/untitled.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 14.6667px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the beginning</span></a><span style="color: #999999; font-family: "tahoma"; font-size: 14.6667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Thank you.</span></span>Icallshogunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505487017767411572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670628146425586665.post-51446034249883776022014-01-25T23:34:00.001-08:002014-01-25T23:34:07.051-08:00Tour Guide<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“It still says that your right arm should be complete in two more days. Your left a day after that.” Carbon thumbed her way through his readout on a tablet, sipping from a bottle of water as she scanned the text scrolling by.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-13cdc22c-cd76-26b6-d65d-55ef41b0a631" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex had been asking about his progress every day since his head and neck were released more than a day ahead of schedule. “That’ll be a relief. It’ll be great to feed myself again. Not that I don’t appreciate the help.”</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You are welcome.” She returned the tablet to its cradle on the wall, stuffing the empty containers from lunch into the recycler. “It estimates that you will be halfway to full recovery when it releases your arms. In perhaps two more weeks you will be able to do your </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">stuff</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">If Alex didn’t know any better he would have thought that Carbon was teasing him. There wasn’t any hint of it in her voice that he could detect. She knew he was eager to be up and able to be productive again, but had a nebulous idea of what he’d be doing. With his neural interface destroyed and the ship’s reactor still cold, he’d fallen back to wanting to do ‘work’ or ‘things’ frequently, and ‘stuff’ most often.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Is there something wrong?” Carbon floated over to the side of the mediboard, a curious look in her eyes.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Oh, no. I was just thinking.” He had screwed his face up as he had been working through that, brow furrowed deeply in concentration. “Sorry.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Apologies. While they often seem familiar, I do not know if I am interpreting your expressions correctly.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex considered that and nodded with approval. “You’ve been spot on, as far as I can tell.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Have I?” She eased back to where she normally placed herself, a hint of a smile on her face. “Good. You will tell me if I appear to interpret them incorrectly, yes?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Of course.” If he noticed, anyway. He’d never really thought about his expressions unless he was trying to get out of trouble. “Hey, since we’re kind of on the subject, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“You know you do not need to wait until a subject has been breached to do that?” Her eyebrows quirked down and she tilted her head nearly imperceptibly, apparently perplexed by his statement.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Yeah. Of course.” Alex wasn’t sure if he did, now. There was something about the way she said it that made him think there were people who did not enjoy that luxury.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Good. Please, ask your question.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Since we are talking about interpreting things, and not being sure that we were getting it right, I was wondering if you could tell me more about your culture. Because culture often holds the key to properly interpreting actions.” He winced as everything spilled out of him in an barely organized mess of thoughts.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Carbon drew back, her antennae pulled low and lips pressed together tight. “I could, yes.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I’d really appreciate it. I’ve read the primer that our diplomats use, and while it was helpful...” The diplomatic primer was a scant twenty pages, and that was the sum of human knowledge of the inner workings of the Tsla’o. It wasn’t bad - so far it hadn’t steered him wrong - but it was obviously short on details. Given that they had signed their first peace accord more than sixty years ago, it had to be intentional.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“It is not good.” She sucked on her cheek for a moment and looked away. “I have been told that when our species first made contact, there was a concerted effort to... conceal ourselves.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Of course she had read it. “So it’s wrong?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Not a majority of it. Those that worked with humans knowingly kept much of our traditions and culture hidden, and what they did not was simplified.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">At least his hunch was correct. “Given that, have I done anything particularly stupid?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“No. You have carried yourself well despite the lack of knowledge.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He relaxed a fair bit, surprised at how glad he felt that he hadn’t been an jerk on accident. “Good. I would still like to know more, though. I’d prefer a whole view, but I will settle for more complete or less simple.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Carbon chewed over that for a few minutes, whatever internal conflict she was having clearly etched on her face. “We are allies, now more than we have ever been before. It is past time for the Tsla’o to stop hiding from you.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“So that’s a yes?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“It is.” She closed her eyes and tipped her head forward, eliminating any doubt. Carbon blanched and looked back up at him. “I do not know where to begin. I have never given thought to how I would explain... Tsla’o to an outsider before.”</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex gave an easy laugh, the grin that came to him honest. “We can start at the table of contents and work our way back from there.”</span></span></div>
Icallshogunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505487017767411572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670628146425586665.post-73074448424698354272013-11-07T16:16:00.002-08:002013-11-08T12:16:43.099-08:00Groundwork<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“This is how I see it. If you asked me six months ago what I’d be doing now, I’d have exactly one item right.” Over the past few days, the routine had fallen into Carbon feeding him and then disappearing for long periods of time. She was giving him regular updates on what she was doing in regards to the engines. So far it was mostly cleaning up the damage, with the occasional technical task that went way over his head.</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b id="docs-internal-guid-67d8e516-350e-f618-3d1e-a854c0c892c2" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“And what is that?” Carbon held his bag of pea soup out to him.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"> “I would be in space. That’s the thing I’d be spot on about. But I’d be doing stuff. Important stuff. Out there, helping Humanity towards its future and all that manifest destiny bullshit they put in the movies.” He took a sip before ending his bitter rant. “Not just sitting here eyeball-deep in medigel.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“You are recuperating from remarkably severe injuries.” She said it like hearing it out loud would make him feel better.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I shouldn’t even have injuries. I should have flown better.” Alex clenched his jaw and exhaled through his teeth. “I shouldn’t have screwed up.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Carbon sighed and closed her eyes. “There was nothing you could have done better. I do not say that to make you feel better, it is the truth of what happened. See that, and see that you will be fully repaired in a matter of weeks.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“But I can’t do</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">anything </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">now</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.” </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Would you feel better if I shut the mediboard off?” Carbon studied him as she sipped her lunch bag, clearly annoyed, her antennae and eyebrows pulled low. “Then you can assist me in engineering by bleeding on everything.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“That’s stupid.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“That is the alternative in this situation.” She shook her head and finished whatever she had been eating. “Do not be so prideful that you deny yourself time to heal, particularly after such an unusual encounter.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She had a point there. They had faced down two full Eohm fleets at once, and come away with just one casualty. Not bad for a ship small enough to classify as a cutter. “Still. I want to be able to do </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">something</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and I can’t. All I can do is lay here.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Healing </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">something.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Yeah. It is.” He pursed his lips and sighed. “Do you think you could make this thing put me under for a week or two? Until I’ve got more of my body back?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I do not think that would be a good idea.” Carbon recoiled at his question, setting herself spinning away gently until she steadied herself with the wall.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Yeah?” He gave her a sideways look, the only kind he could manage at the time. “Why’s that?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“You would starve.” She spat the answer out quickly, like someone who was hiding her actual motivation.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He was quite sure they had a feeding tube somewhere, or at least something that could be turned into one. Alex also wasn’t stupid, and while he didn’t understand why she didn’t like it, he would let it go. He laughed and grinned. “You know, I hadn’t thought of that.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Carbon’s mouth twitched up into an uneasy sort of smile with a brief flash of small sharp teeth, then crushed it with the composure she normally wore. “Given all that has happened, it is understandable.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Silence filled the small medical bay, the constant hum of the life support system the only thing to fill it. A heartbeat slipped by, then a moment and a minute after that. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Carbon cleared her throat and held up his packet of soup. “Do you want any more of this? I should return to my work.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Eh, nah. The ham is...” Alex stopped mid sentence. She wouldn’t have any point of reference for how the ham was supposed to be, no point in going down that road. “No, thank you.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Very well. I will return for dinner.” Carbon thumbed the door controls, the pair of heavy shutters sliding into the wall behind her. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Wait a second.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Yes?” She turned around and gave him a curious look.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Uh...” Alex really did want to know what problem she had with putting him under acually was. If the circumstances were different - say, if he wasn’t wholly reliant on her - he’d be more comfortable asking directly. If she took offence to that, well he was sure she wouldn’t let him starve. Mostly. This felt like a really bad idea now. “I was going to ask you something but it just slipped my mind. Sorry.”</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Very well.” The curious look stayed put as she turned back towards the hall. “Perhaps you will remember it later.”</span></span></div>
Icallshogunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505487017767411572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670628146425586665.post-19568641607315520532013-10-06T13:33:00.000-07:002013-10-06T13:33:04.380-07:00Dinner Conversation<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I cannot understand how so fractured a society managed to reach space.” Carbon shook her head and offered up the straw to the bag of food to him again.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-2404a185-8f77-f2d6-380e-7b76cf750836" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I hear that a lot.” He took a pull of passable beef stew and swallowed. It had been covered in school, actually. They - the Tslao, Eohm, and Tkt - all had apparently homogeneous cultures. The Tslao in particular had a difficult time wrapping their heads around the panoply of humanity. “Not that specifically, but something similar.”</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She left his bag floating in front of him and took a sip from her own, considering his comment an invitation to continue. “Your dispenser has over a thousand kinds of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">soup </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">available, even on local backup power. Scrolling through the list gave me the feeling of going mad. It seemed to never end and there were so many </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">languages</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. I had to do research.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Really? I had never looked at the soups before.” In the few months he’d known Carbon, this was the most she had said to him outside of ship business. The tone was conversational and it wasn’t even directly critical of him! It was probably a good sign, but that was assuming he was reading her correctly.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I will not accept ‘just pick something for me’ as an answer from you for your future meals.” She shook her head and took another pull from her bag. The markings on it indicated she was not giving Human cuisine a try tonight.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Despite his best efforts, he smiled at that. The attempt to suppress it just kind of twisted it a bit and made him look very smug.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">She did mind that. Her expression darkened, her voice dropped away from the conversational tone she had just been using. “Are you mocking me?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">There went his progress. “No. I was just...” Alex tried to figure out how to say what he meant through the cultural barrier with a bit of grace. He failed at that, instead choosing to simply barge through it with as detailed an explanation as possible. “I thought the situation was humorous for its irony. I had not intended to cause you any trouble when you asked me what I wanted to eat, but offering what I perceived to be an easy option turned out to be the opposite.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Her expression softened, voice chastened. “Irony. Yes.” Carbon sighed, set her food aside, and rubbed her eyes. He hadn’t noticed how tired she looked until now. “I am not being considerate of you, Alex. I confess that I very easily forget you are in this state.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“It’s fine. I forget that I’m stuck here every few minutes anyway.” He grinned. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Miraculously, the corners of her mouth curled up just a bit as she held his packet of stew out to him again. “The mediboard indicates you should have your upper body back sometime in the next week. Your legs will take longer yet.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He swallowed another sip of stew. “Good. At least I’ll be able to do something.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I do not know that there will be much for you to do. The ship is in good shape with the exception of the bridge and engine room.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Are the Ehom still in system?” He already knew the answer. If they had left, everything could be turned back on. They were still running just automated systems: life support, shielding and the kinetic buffers. Those would run for months after a ship’s crew was dead.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Yes. They have moved away to one of the local planets, nearly the other side of the system. We are adrift and they have made no attempts to check the ship yet.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“That’s something.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“It is.” She fed him another sip of stew and looked away, expression guilty. “I have been meaning to discuss something with you.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">In his experience, good conversations did not start that way. “Go on.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“After the attack, I entered the bridge-” she stopped and her eyebrows knit together, some internal tug-of-war going on. “When I got the crash foam off of you, there was so much blood.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“My Amp wasn’t reporting vitals, you had no idea if I was still alive. I can understand why you did that.” </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Yes, that is exactly...” she trailed off, her eyes briefly meeting his before darting away. “What do you mean by that?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“You performed a neural link with me while I was unconscious.” He had plenty of time to suss out possible explanations for why she had done it, and it probably wasn’t because she had been bored.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“You should not be able to remember that.” She seemed genuinely confused about this.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Well, I do.” In event of a crash, the pilot was injected with a cocktail of drugs and nanites to mitigate injuries and keep him conscious enough to fly. That was the idea, at least. “Why did you do it?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She hesitated, and looked like she was about to bolt from the room for a moment. “I had to know if </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">you </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">still lived.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The way she put emphasis on it was telling, according to the primer. She had wanted to see if his collection of memories was intact. From learning to read to flying a scoutship, these were what made him unique, according to the Tslao. With his memories gone he would have been some sort of ghoul to them, and useless on the ship. “You would have left me to die if I hadn’t?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“It is likely.” She look at the packet of food in her hands with deadly intensity that indicated she didn’t particularly relish the idea of someone dying on her watch, no matter what they were.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I do not blame you. In the same situation I can’t say I would not have done the same thing.” It might have been a lie, but he knew it was the diplomatic thing to say. It let her save face.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">She nodded, still looking guilty but more relaxed. “Thank you.”</span></span></div>
Icallshogunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505487017767411572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670628146425586665.post-6304906081073974232013-10-01T01:02:00.000-07:002013-10-01T01:02:24.995-07:00Working Order<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">After things settled down and Carbon had departed again, autosurgeon still latched on to her abdomen, Alex managed to get some sleep.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-71ffec02-7304-b46e-f82d-9a9cc368c6a8" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Then he woke up hungry.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Given that his injuries didn’t extend much beyond his limbs, the mediboard should have extruded a feeding tube into his nose and been squirting a food-like substance directly into his stomach. Not exactly a pleasant thing to consider, but it took care of the issue of starvation.</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“What did they do here?” Carbon uttered a burst of Tsla then trailed off and sighed. She was somewhere under the mediboard, attempting to figure out why it wasn’t feeding him.</span></span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“What did who do to what?” Alex had his entire face back under his command and pulled his lips back into a grimace that only stuck around for a moment. Feeling again, even that little bit, curled the corners of his mouth up in a smirk.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“The engineer who modified this did... I do not know exactly what he did to the hardware.” She hissed through clenched teeth and shut the access panel with no small amount of force. “There are protocols to follow. You leave clear and thorough notation of all changes made. He did not and now I do not dare try to fix this.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex had thought he’d pissed her off before, but he’d never managed to get her this worked up. “Any idea what they did?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Too much.” She waved the tablet she had been using as she floated back up into view, her face carved with an unprecedented level of annoyance. “They removed the primary AI and nutrition pod as well as a few other parts. The AI is the most distressing alteration.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Then how the hell is this thing working?” He found himself suddenly not wanting to be on the mediboard anymore, despite how bad his injuries were.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“The secondary AI is taking care of your repairs. It is a very small unit, very simple. From the description, I do not think feeding is even included in its programming.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Oh.” Alex puzzled over that for a moment. The AI was powerful enough to handle superluminal navigation, so running a mediboard shouldn’t be a problem. “Ship’s AI was shut down safely, right?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Yes. The coolant system was partially vented in the dead-hand sequence, everything attached to it was successfully shut down before any thermal damage occurred.” The sharp tone in her voice dialed back as she started talking about something other than what angered her in the first place “Offloading the mediboard’s workload so it could handle both of our biologies was not a bad idea, though I believe it was not thoroughly considered.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Seems to be a mixed bag.” Alex wanted to slouch, heave a huge sigh and generally act dramatic. He wasn’t sure if it was because he couldn’t or if he actually was and hadn’t realized it until now. He settled for a frown.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Certainly.” The fire in her blue eyes died down as she rubbed them and slicked back her antennae. “I could fabricate another nutrition pod for this unit, but I do not believe that it would work.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Shouldn’t those parts be like new?” That was his understanding of a fabrication matrix, anyway. They had two of the best humanity made in the engineering bay, those should be able to turn out just about any part they needed.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I am sorry. While it should function normally, it would require code to be spliced into its programming.” She nodded at him, eyes closed. “As well as a full system reboot. In your current state that would not be fatal, but it would likely be excruciating, as long as it worked as intended.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The apology stunned him. Just a little bit, but it kept him silent for several seconds. He hadn’t expected to hear something like that from her, ever, but she had been unspecific. “But it would be fatal if it didn’t, right?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“That is the likely outcome.” Carbon’s antennae perked up a little bit as she continued, the act of problem solving almost instantly improving her mood. “If that did occur, I could have the secondary AI restored to its original settings within a few hours. Between the trauma surgeon and a few select amputations, I am almost certain you could survive that long.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“No that’s fine.” Alex blurted out the words as fast as they’d go. “I’m willing to entertain pretty much any other ideas you’ve got, though.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“That is perhaps best left as a final option.” She deflated slightly, clicking her claws on the tablet as she thought. “I believe the most simple answer may be the best, in this situation.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“What’s that?”</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I will take care of this myself.” She sighed, resigned, and slipped the tablet under her arm. “What would you like to eat?”</span></span></div>
Icallshogunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505487017767411572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670628146425586665.post-21908646943037743122013-09-22T11:10:00.003-07:002013-09-22T11:10:27.776-07:00One Good Turn<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Carbon didn’t respond to him immediately. She fished the first cannister of drugs from the dispenser tray and loaded it into an injector. She winced as she pressed it to her arm, holding it in place until it beeped empty. When she replied, her voice was ragged and tired, teeth tinged a dark red already. “Eight hundreds. One thousands. Between.”</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-6e006344-46d8-8890-cbfd-6c8b2477317f" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex didn’t know what unit she was using. Definitely wasn’t Gray, which would have rendered her dead a few times over. Roentgen? Could be. Probably some Tslao measurement he’d never heard of. “That’s a lot.”</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">She nodded and repeated the process on her other arm, exhaling a long hiss. “It is.”</span></span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“How bad is it?” </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Carbon set the injector back into its cradle and curled up into a ball. “It is... The knife’s edge? Radiation will kill me, treatment might kill me.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dread spiked in his gut. “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Might</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> kill you?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“The... medication is... Nh, lung restrictor?” She paused, breathing heavily. “I do not know biological words. Physics, engineering.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"> “It makes it so you can’t breathe?</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">She nodded and began to wheeze quietly. “Also interferes with discharge of carbon dioxide.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex wasn’t previously aware of any sort of medication that gave it’s user asthma and prevented them from exhaling the poisonous gasses that built up in their blood. “That’s fucked up.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Carbon gave him a watered down version of her usual glare when he said imprecise things, even as her breathing got worse. “If equipment, not problem.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“You need a dialysis machine?” Alex’s eyes swiveled down towards the bright yellow medical kit mounted next to the door. “Get the trauma surgeon. It can do that.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">She shook her head as she started gasping for breath, managing to get out one word. “Different.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Tslao ran on the same basic chemistry as Humans. They could breathe the same atmosphere, eat the same food and drink the same liquids, for the most part. Things got a lot more complex when you started dealing with synthetic drugs, so they added a mode that could operate on Tslao but without any sort of anesthetic. “It will work with your physiology, like the mediboard. It won’t be comfortable, but it will do the job.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Carbon watched him as she struggled for breath, then reached out and gave herself a push towards the kit. She caught the handle and pulled it open, the shelves within folding out to offer their bounty of medical supplies. The Tslao just hung there in front of it, gasping for air and twitching as her head scanned the packages in front of her over and over again.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“The big one at the bottom.” Working in space, one of the first things he learned was to recognize hypercapnia. Confusion and tremors are pretty close to the ‘dead’ side of the symptom list. Sure would be handy if he could get up right about now. “Select Tslao then press the base to your abdomen.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">That, at least, worked. She got the shoe-box sized autonomous surgeon out of the kit, pressed the species option on the screen and hugged it to her body tightly, curling up around it.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The translucent machine beeped and went to work. Aside from the occasional twitch or grunt of pain from Carbon, there was no real indication it was doing anything. She just floated by the door for some time, rotating slowly from a particularly violent jerk of her body away from the machine.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Her breathing steadied and slowed, not normal by a long shot, but Carbon no longer gasped for breath. She steadied herself and came up beside the mediboard, where Alex could see her more easily. “Thank you. I did not know- I did not even know this existed.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“No problem.” Alex would have shrugged if he had control of any sizable portion of his body. He couldn’t think of anyone he wouldn’t have at least tried to help out - it was the right thing to do. Tslao didn’t think that way though, according to the primer. Given Carbon’s actions since the attack, he wasn’t sure how accurate that was any more. “I’m not going to watch someone suffer.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“It is deeply appreciated.” She tipped her head in assent.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“There is one thing, though.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Yes?” Her head tipped to the side, antennae raised slightly.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Next time you have to do something like that, talk to me before you do it.” Alex looked her straight in the eye. “I’m not exactly active right now but I still know a lot. By all means, put that to use.”</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Carbon dipped her head again, the motion deeper this time. There may have been a hint of a smile at the corners of her mouth. “You have my promise.”</span></span></div>
Icallshogunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505487017767411572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670628146425586665.post-71188333149393112972013-09-13T01:53:00.002-07:002013-09-13T01:53:59.644-07:00Keystone<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex didn’t find sleep quickly. He spent hours staring at the ceiling, only able to turn his eye far enough to see the clock on the wall. When he did, the dream came almost immediately.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-605a6616-1684-fda0-e7b0-408691442681" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He pushed himself up out the the cockpit of the simulator, blinking in the bright lights of the sim bay. He had a stupid sort of grin on his face, an enthusiasm that permeated the whole of his being. “If that’s what the next generation of Waverider drives is going... I can’t wait to get my hands on the real thing.”</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">There was a little hiccup in his dream here. Something interjected a curious sense of superiority, maybe smug satisfaction. There was a word for it, he just couldn’t remember.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I think everybody is interested in that right now, Pilot Sorenson.” Ed was his trainer in the Scoutship program, an old pro who’d been out in the black a dozen times. Ed had never called him Pilot Sorenson.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Are they going to have these ready for my ship?” He was eager to know when he would finally get his assignment. He had spent two years getting ready for this assignment, even spent six months at Navy boot camp for zero-g training. They should have put him on one by now. Three others had left while he’d been stuck doing more training... but if the trade off was the new engines, he’d be happy with that.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“As a matter of fact, they will. Your charge will be ready in just about two months.” Ed looked... Alex wasn’t sure. Sad, tense, hopeful and worried, all at the same time, boiling just below the surface. There was more happening than he was letting on.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Another hitch, a flicker of an emotion that wasn’t his, this time pleased at his insight.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“That’s great! Is it new? Will I get to name it?” First pilot always got to name a new ship. He felt like a kid in a candy store at the prospect, his mind running over all of the potential names he could assign it before Ed cut him off.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“No, it’s already named.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I guess that makes sense.” It wasn’t unusual for ships with the first run of new technology to already be named, particularly when it came to engines. “What’s it called?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kshalvo</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Bridge builder.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I don’t recognize that language.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“It’s Tslao. Your engineer is going to be a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lan</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, a Shipmaster.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Tslao? They’re putting me on a ship with a </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fucking dog</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">?” His voice practically cracked, starting to make a scene in the quiet hum of the sim bay. He didn’t have any particular problems with the Tslao. That didn’t mean he wanted to have to deal with one of them, let alone get stuck with one in a Scoutship.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Watch your mouth.” Ed’s face twisted with anger and his voice dropped an octave, eyes gleaming with a hard edge as he leaned in to Alex. “Come to my office. You need to see something.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex hadn’t thought he’d said anything particularly bad. Nothing he didn’t hear a dozen times a week out of the other pilots, but given the way that people moved out of Ed’s way, he had fucked up pretty impressively. Goodbye future opportunities. Ed slapped the control panel, closing the door behind Alex and dropped himself into his desk chair without saying a word. Alex sat silently with the hope that he might be able to salvage his career.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Ed just stared at his monitor and dug around for something. When he found it, he swiveled the screen around to Alex. Just a video, time lapse, of a blue and green planet spinning slowly. The original timestamps were in a flowing script he assumed to be Tsla, modern English numerals below it. It ticked forward three minutes every second, must have been taken from a geosynchronous satellite as the landmass below never changed.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He missed it at first. A black speck a few hundred kilometers from the western coast. It expanded, a ragged spot and then a gray-black smear spreading across the atmosphere. The playback sped up, each tick an hour forward. The continent dipped into night and then came back around to day, the streak had widened by about double. Alex’s blood ran cold as he watched it envelop most of the planet, finally understanding what he was looking at. “Was that a volcano?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">There was a hitch again, longer this time. Sorrow so bad it hurt.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Sort of. Ejected more than nine thousand cubic kilometers of debris into the air. The Volcanic Explosivity Index was extended to ten just for it.” Ed had calmed significantly, his normally cool demeanor sliding back into place. The old pilot continued, “That was six years ago, they came to us for help a year later. Scientists figure it’ll take about a decade for the ash to come down and who knows how long to fix up the biosphere. In the meantime, most cities have functioning shielding, but they’re still trying to offload the remaining one and a half billion refugees on planet.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex nodded, unable to look away. He understood the limitations of atmospheric craft and ash was one of the worst things to fly through. There were ways around the that, but even small craft would require hundreds of modifications to survive it. Maybe some atmosphere capable warships with fully sealed systems... but good luck landing those in a city. “It’s dead, isn’t it?”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Basically. We’ve been helping with the offload, giving shelter where possible without making a scene,” he gave Alex a pointed look. “Getting their shipbuilding capability back up has been a nightmare, I’m told. A lot of their manufacturing was done on the ground on their homeworld.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Even if they weren’t building new ships, they would still have to maintain the old ones. Alex didn’t know the numbers of what the Tslao fleet looked like, but if the main source of parts was gone, it would be dwindling by the day. “Guessing there’s not a lot of interoperable parts.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“A lot of things are similar enough,” Ed shrugged. “They love quickweld and we’ve got the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lamarr </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">refit dock in orbit, so they can replicate specific parts on site, at least.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Good. How are they doing?” The last few minutes had changed his perspective significantly. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Everything they’ve got is crammed full of refugees, they’re constantly short of food, medical supplies and everything else. So, about as shitty as you’d expect.” Ed swiveled his monitor around again and leaned back in his chair. “That is why we embarked upon this little project. The </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kshlavo </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">uses a Scoutship frame that was nearing completion with Tslao engines refit into it. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Yeah, I get-”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex would have sat up bolt upright, startled from sleep by the door to the medical bay opening, but he was still pinned to the mediboard. His eye swiveled down to find Carbon returning, cleaned up and dressed in a plain jumpsuit. She sort of looked at him, eyes dull and sick as she scanned the room and then proceeded to the medical dispenser.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Carbon switched it into Tsla and started dialing things in, each press on the screen slow and methodical. She shifted as she tapped out a few doses and Alex recognized the Tslao symbol for on the screen. “How much radiation did you take?”</span></span></div>
Icallshogunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505487017767411572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670628146425586665.post-89313622187686540562013-08-29T10:52:00.000-07:002013-08-29T10:52:36.120-07:00Debtor<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex had been pretty sure that that ‘life flashing before your eyes’ thing when you died was bunk. But, there it went. A stuttering slideshow of his life, snippets from childhood to just a few days ago flickered through his mind, the things that had made him who he was. It was interspersed with the weirdest feelings, something like comfort and gratification but decidedly foreign. At least, it felt positive.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-09b18492-cb33-1980-4aea-62ea95ca7e85" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Then all of it gave way to darkness.</span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There were many things about darkness that Alex didn't like. The big one was that the inability to tell where he was in relation to things set off intense claustrophobia and that lead to the inescapable feeling that he was about to be crushed by </span><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">something</span><span style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.15; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. He had worked on this as he had grown, reducing an irrational fear to a mere dislike.</span><br />
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He now awoke to find himself in absolute darkness and a quick test of his body revealed that he was trapped, entirely immobile. The panic Alex had banished so long ago began to creep back in around the edges.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He steeled himself against it and started to work out how he had gotten here. The second Eohm fleet had jumped out and he couldn’t get to cover in time. The ship had shrugged off a few projectiles but the volume of fire had been overwhelming and... Alex recalled the crash cage coming up around him in the bridge, an array of injectors dumping chemicals and triage nanites into his body. That’s about where it stopped.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">So, presumably, he was still ensconced safely in crash foam. He tried to wriggle his fingers and toes again, to no avail. There should have been just a little bit of movement, given him the barest of indication that his limbs were still there. There wasn’t. He was becoming aware of the fact he couldn’t feel his body at all.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Still, he kept his fear in check. His Amp was off, so he’d just restart it and it’d link to the ship’s communication system. Alex focused and gave it a mental nudge as he had done so many times before, then waited for the startup sound. The familiar guitar strum never came.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Now, panicking seemed like the thing to do. Alex gritted his teeth and tried to keep his breathing steady and found that it already was. His heart beat slowly in his ears. The only thing he could hear was the even pace of his own body. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">It was so disconcerting it overtook the panic he felt about being trapped. This wasn’t right at all. Alex tried to stop breathing to listen better, but his lungs kept on going. He strained and could hear... a quiet hum that didn’t sound like anything he knew and maybe someone else breathing.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Hello?” He timed it with an exhale, the word unexpectedly timid and a little bit slurred. The hum continued for a few seconds then stopped. A click-thunk followed and it started up again. Alex knew that sound, a medigel dispenser cartridge being changed. </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No one answered. He waited for the exhale and tried again, in Tsla this time. “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kava? Lan Tshalen?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Nothing happened for a moment. Then the Shipmaster heaved a sigh Alex had heard dozens of times before, as though she was being put upon by a moron. “Yes.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Where-” He caught himself and asked a much more pressing question. “You speak English?”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I do.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Oh.” The effect was deeply disturbing. It definitely sounded like the Shipmaster, and she was definitely speaking English. No one had told him she could do that. For a moment, he wanted to continue to grill her on this topic, but refocused himself to more important issues. “What happened?”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“You suffered severe burns and other physical trauma, Pilot Sorenson, most of your motor functions are obscured by the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sta</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-” She paused, apparently to correct herself. “mediboard.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“That sounds bad.” The bits of information helped resolve the situation. If he was on the mediboard, it would try to keep him conscious so he could still be of use. “Am I blind?</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“No.” She was silent for a moment and Alex could hear her breathing. “Your eyes, optic nerve and visual cortex are mostly unharmed.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“But I can’t see.” He was sure he could feel himself blinking, though.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I have shut off the light in this room.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Lights, ten percent.” Naturally, she had shut off the voice control as well. He hadn’t read anything indicating Tslao could see in total darkness. Their visual range shouldn’t be too different than a Human. How in the hell was she doing anything? “Could you turn them on?”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“No.” Her tone indicated that was the last thing she was going to say about it.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Consciously, Alex was starting to panic again. His body still did not care, even though he felt the old fears start to claw at the edge of his psyche. “Really, it won’t hurt anything.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I am indecent.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He actually laughed out loud. Indecent? His mind shifted from fear to anger. She hadn’t even turned her encounter suit’s shielding off around him for the first month out in the black. Probably forgot her gloves. She was practically torturing him over a pair of gloves.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Come on, just a little bit.” Alex may have sounded more desperate than he wanted to.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“No.” A bit of venom this time. The Shipmaster punctuated that with another fresh medigel canister.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The fear rushed back in, stronger than before. She was just going to let him lay here and go insane. He felt his heart rate rise for a moment before the mediboard brought it back into line. He had reached his last option: honesty. “Fear. I’m afraid of the dark.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">She didn’t say anything for an eternity, then sighed again. “Very well.” </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The lights came up just a little.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He found that one of his eyes wasn’t working right - its unwavering gaze was fixed on the ceiling. The other one worked just fine, though, and after a moment of nausea he located the Shipmaster at the foot of the mediboard, gel gun in hand, a dozen empties floating in the air behind her. The locked eyes for a moment and he understood what she had meant by indecent.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Aside from the black metal lump of her personal AI clinging to her shoulders, she appeared to be naked. There was the blood, too. Even in the dim light it carried the bright red gleam of Human blood, as well as chunks of something stuck to her dark fur. She </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">had </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">said he had severe burns. That was his blood, bits of his body that had flaked off.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex’s good eye swiveled away and he immediately began to stammer out an apology.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Stop. That is an embarrassment to us both.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Oh-kay.” His eye stayed focused on the far wall, vision doubled weirdly and threatening to make him sick again. This certainly was more awkward than he had expected it to be. Maybe a little small talk would help ease the situation. “What happened to your encounter suit?”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“It caught fire.” </span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Given how pissed she sounded, that had not been the right thing to ask about. “How is the damage to the ship?”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Severe. The third projectile past the armor damaged the waverider drives, but it the damage is asymmetrical. One may be rebuilt from the two.” That was better. She sounded far less aggravated now.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Shipmaster Tshalan, I must apologize for my behavior. It was uncalled for.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">She did not respond for a few long seconds. “Call me Carbon, Alex.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">That stunned him. More than anything else that had transpired for just about as long as he could remember, this was a surprise. “That... That’s an unusual name.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“My parents enjoyed the way it sounded. My father traded mineral commodities, my mother was a teacher. I do not speak your language by accident.” She set the dispenser down into its holder, clicking it into place. “If we are to survive, formalities will not help us.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">With that, she turned and pushed off from the medi-board, gliding silently out of the sickbay. He couldn’t do anything but lay there and reflect on what had just transpired. Tslao did not address one another by first name in a formal situation. As far as he knew, it was usually reserved for family or trusted friends. Someone they would share a neural link with.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">It wasn’t his life flashing before his eyes, it had been flashing before hers.</span></span></div>
<br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>Icallshogunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505487017767411572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670628146425586665.post-72560437196514935572013-08-04T17:36:00.000-07:002013-08-04T17:36:15.418-07:00Puncture Wound<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“When can we jump?” Normally Alex would have set up a countdown timer himself, without having to ask the Shipmaster. But that required a purposeful, focused thought. He didn’t dare take his attention away from navigating a still growing cloud of Eohm projectiles.</span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-73696d29-4be6-0b5b-19bf-dfc83d6648b3" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Six. Minutes.” The words were, at best, venomous. Shipmaster Tshalen made it crystal clear that usurping her authority over the engines and power plant had not done anything to improve her view of him.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Super.” Alex rolled the ship out of the way of a particularly dense cluster of projectiles. Truth be told, they probably could have safely taken the damage from a missile, maybe two. It would have peeled off the shields, no doubt about that. Anything else after that would have been a different story entirely.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He shook his head, clearing his mind of second guessing for the time being. They just had to hang on for six minutes. Easy.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The sensors shrieked in his mind and Alex flinched away from the noise, jerking the Kshlav’o out of the path of a superluminal bolt. With the shipboard AI hooked so tightly into his brain, he </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">felt </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it as it passed. The sensation of something searing hot hovering over his skin, the bones in his shoulder flexing informed him clearly this was not something he wanted to let make contact.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">If the Eohm were going to use near instant-strike weapons usually reserved for capital ships, running wasn’t going to work for six minutes. The scoutship was fast and agile in sublight and extremely durable for a ship its size, but it wouldn’t take a hit like that.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A conventional tack would not work, so he cobbled together what he knew about the Eohm and made something unconventional. Alex brought the long range scanners online and killed the main thrusters just long enough to flip the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kshlav'o</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> over and begin a run at the twin Eohm fleets.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Shipmaster’s channel opened a heartbeat later. Even with the faint digitization, the translator conveyed the alien’s alarm and anger. “Why have we reversed direction?”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“I’m buying time.” He was distant, eyes searching for a clear path and any kind of missile. The long range sensors moved with his gaze, the wide-band impulse blinding whatever it touched. It only took a few moments for the AI to understand what he was doing and take over. “I’ve got this.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“You have what?”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">It was kind of nice to not hear exasperation when he was imprecise about something, even if she was still really pissed. “I have a plan. I’m going to the only defensible location around here.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The extra information cooled her temper, her words now just terse. “You are going there </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">through </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Eohm?”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alex flinched again as a railgun projectile skipped off their shields, a hot knife dragged across his chest. “I am going </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> the Eohm.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The translator passed along an angry burst of Tsla, whatever she had said not present in the dictionary. “We will not go to our deaths. Change direction immediately, pilot.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“They won’t risk firing on each other.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">She made a sort of grunt sound that Alex understood as the Tsla’o version of ‘huh?’</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Eohm view other life as dangerous, but their own is sacred. They won’t take the chance.” He hoped they wouldn’t, anyway. No one had ever had the opportunity to test that theory until now.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“By your sight I yield, pilot.” There might have been a hint of approval in there, somewhere.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">That wasn’t something he had heard her say before. Alex was still pretty sure he got her meaning. “Thanks.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The incoming fire had died down as they approached - they stopped firing missiles entirely and larger class projectiles gave way to smaller guns that the shields could shrug off. Three minutes left as they slipped into the space between the two fleets, everything went silent.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex opened the comm to the Shipmaster again, a smile creeping onto his face. “Worked like a charm.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Hold your pride until we are underway again.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">That was prudent advice. There was still an enormous amount of ordinance pointed at them. “Very well.”</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He kept it in check as he jinked the ship around the safe zone. Two minutes. One minute. The SAPRAM sensor went off the charts and Alex started swearing to himself as one of the fleets jumped out.</span></span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He made a run for the remaining fleet as thousands of rounds of ammunition lanced out of the myriad guns leveled at them.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Alex was a good pilot. Probably one of the best, in his estimation, but some odds were too long.</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
Icallshogunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04505487017767411572noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2670628146425586665.post-87340609269493838762013-07-17T22:06:00.000-07:002013-07-17T22:22:31.005-07:00Working Relationship<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“No, mom. You put the emotion-clause on the front of the statement so they know how it’s supposed to be interpreted.” Alex sat in the darkened bridge, illuminated by dozens of holographic displays. His mother’s image was front and center, bleary-eyed from the early morning call. </span></span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-3d3ee2e9-f02a-ac1b-5974-219b8d1f3c69" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“That’s fine.” His mother may have ignored what he just told her. She may just have been half asleep. “Be sure to let the Shipmaster know she’s doing a great job.”</span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He nodded at his mother on the screen, eyes darting over to check the countdown timer and a wall of instruments. “She knows. Look, mom, we’re about to go back into realspace, I need to go.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He didn’t tell her about the anomalous reading on the Sheridan-Reyes SAPRAM. Something in the destination system was wrong - possibly some kind of problem with the local star or someone keeping a whole bunch of Waverider drives warmed up. A stray thought notified the Shipmaster about it through his Amp.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Ok Alex, you take care. I love you!” She smiled the same smile as always, both a little proud and sad that her son had managed to become a scoutship pilot. This trip out was two years and live communication was limited to FTL calls during a waveride, if there was time. There usually wasn’t.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Love you too, mom.” He smiled and waved, then cut the line. Almost as soon as his mother vanished from the screen, Shipmaster Tshalen popped up in her place. Their heads appeared about the same size, despite the Shipmaster being shorter and proportionally smaller. Some people said Tsla’o looked like dogs; Alex could see the similarity.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The flattish head, dense blue-black fur and nostrils set wide at the end of a short muzzle spoke very highly of it. Her ears and the antenna that ran over the top of her head were folded down, as was normal. That was to say nothing of their weird legs.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Pilot Sorenson. These readings are troubling. They were not present on the initial scan from the probe.” Her mouth moved strangely as his Amp translated everything other than his name. It was easiest to let the respective computer interfaces translate. It must have made the negotiations to get this mission set up far less onerous.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Shipmaster Tshalen. They are indeed.” He tarted up his speech patterns to make the translation smoother. “The magnitude of the readings would indicate a fleet action or significant stellar event.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Agreement.” They both knew the waveride could be ended prematurely, but neither of them wanted to waste the month an emergency shutdown inspection would take. “I suggest as wide a course correction as is possible right now. In addition to this I will precharge the sublight engines to boost an emergency waveride.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">As she said it, he began to alter course. Less than a minute until they arrived, it wouldn’t be much of a change but it would put them further away from the anomaly. “A wise plan. Course has been corrected. Entering realspace in fifty-five seconds.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Live well Pilot Sorenson.” She shut the connection down. The ship would almost be dead in space if she was using the sublight engines as capacitors for the wave drives, with nothing but a handful of docking thrusters to shove the ship around with, but they would be able to jump back out in just over ninety seconds.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The Amp filled Alex’s brain with the surrounding space as they slowed to sub-light speeds. It was far, far worse than he expected. “Shipmaster. We need the Waveriders back up immediately.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“It is seen.” Even through the translator, her words were terse.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">Spread out in the darkness of the local system were two massive clusters of ships, a pair of Eohm fleets. The backbone of each fleet was a ten kilometer long home ship surrounded by a swarm of spacecraft of every conceivable size. It wasn’t unheard of them to make contact with each other, do a bit of trading. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The hostile action warning started going off in the back of Alex’s head as the computer superimposed a burning red dot on the nearest fleet. Another and another popped up, then a few dozen more as more Eohm ships became aware of of them and started to heat up their guns. To say the Eohm were intensely xenophobic would be an understatement.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">The first dot flickered and became a line with a little cluster of data attached to it. Railgun, approximately fifty centimeter, radiological, 99% chance of impact in eleven seconds. </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alex gave the ship a nudge with the docking thrusters and the line turned yellow, then blue. The chance of impact dropped to zero as a half dozen more lines speared outward from the fleet. He opened the comm to the Shipmaster. “We need to go </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">now</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Thirty seconds.” She was aware of this fact.</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">He glanced across the rapidly widening array of ordinance being thrown at them and shook his head, missile lock warnings blaring in his wetware. Docking thrusters wouldn’t dodge those. “I need my engines back.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“There are-” </span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“We start eating missiles in twelve seconds. I need them now.”</span></span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></b>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“Can you not-”</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #cccccc;"><br /><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #cccccc;">“No, I can’t.” He cut her off again and pressed his credentials into the computer, overriding her control of the sublight engines. A distinct feeling of power flooded his body as he snapped out a roll and started to run, dumping flares and jamming pods behind them. “Just tell me when the waveriders are up.”</span></span></div>
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