Gordon S. McLeod's Blog, page 5
January 5, 2013
The Price of Entanglement - Chapter 13, pt. 1
“You know that young man?” Dr. Toure asked, concern touching his voice.
“It’s Philip, it must be Philip. He’s my cousin,” Jo said, pacing back and forth. The forest was gone, the halls and rooms looking the way they should once more.
“That’s not the name he gave us,” Toure said, but he didn’t sound as though he disbelieved her, either. “He calls himself Cable.”
Cable? She mentally shrugged, then followed it with a physical one. “Philip, Cable, either way, he’s my cousin. I’ve got to …” Got to wh...
January 4, 2013
The Price of Entanglement - Chapter 12 Revisit
It's been a while since I last worked on this, so tonight I'm posting a recap while I redigest what I've been on about in it. New material tomorrow! If you need a more extensive revisit, check out the category view for the book so far.
When she awakened, she was in an unfamiliar location and had no idea how much time had just passed. Her room looked like a refurbished hospital relic from the 20th century, only with worse lighting and slightly run-down facilities even by the standards of the ti...
January 2, 2013
Homecoming - Day 11
“Thanks, Aru.” And I hope you’re on my side, he didn’t add.
With little else to do, he settled in with his tablet and interfaced it to the various data stores he had about his person, built into his clothing for the most part. May as well get a little work in, he thought. It was futile; it sounded like they were tearing Aru’s chassis apart out there. Maybe they were looking for the bot’s central operating unit.
“Rendezvous with the larger ship in approximately 1 minute, 30 seconds,” Aru informe...
December 29, 2012
Homecoming - Day 10
Madeline. How could these guys, whoever they were, have found out about him and his ship quickly enough to catch him en route? It had to have been Madeline Sobol. She’d helped him out of a jam, but the cost he’d had to pay had shown him very clearly that she was a shady character at best.
“Aru,” he said, then stopped. Aru belonged to her. His stomach sank as a tendril of doubt wrapped itself around his mind. When he’d first met Aru, he hadn’t had much use for bots, but their experiences since...
December 28, 2012
Homecoming - Day 8 & 9
I wrote a bit yesterday but it wasn't enough to post, so I've merged it with this into a slightly longer post for today.
Every instinct screamed at him to move slowly and carefully, to avoid making noise. He forced himself to ignore that instinct; there were few things life as an office researcher could teach about stealthy movement, but one of those few things is that people ignore the familiar and expected. Please, please assume I’m one of you, he thought to himself as he approached the carg...
Homecoming - Day 8 & 9
I wrote a bit yesterday but it wasn't enough to post, so I've merged it with this into a slightly longer post for today.
Every instinct screamed at him to move slowly and carefully, to avoid making noise. He forced himself to ignore that instinct; there were few things life as an office researcher could teach about stealthy movement, but one of those few things is that people ignore the familiar and expected. Please, please assume I’m one of you, he thought to himself as he approached the carg...
December 24, 2012
Homecoming - Day 7
“Where are the boarders?”
“I can’t help you with that, I’m afraid. This craft has no internal sensors that would help me locate them.”
Corwin fought down a rising tide of panic. He grabbed his supplies and peeked out into the central corridor of the ship. Nothing moved, but a loud metallic clang reached him, followed by voices and footsteps from further down. They were on board.
He ducked back inside. It was too far to rush to the cargo bay; he was stuck. His mind flashed around for a solution t...
December 19, 2012
Homecoming - Day 6
When he had gathered enough to last several days, he paused and grabbed several other containers that he could seal; he’d noticed that there were no bathroom facilities in the compartment. Then he grabbed the tablet and blanched.
“Alert! Advance boarding craft detected! ETA 5 minutes!” Aru had been trying to get his attention—for 6 minutes.
“Alert! Corwin, get to your compartment! They’re cutting through the hull!”
“Where are they coming through?”
“Crew bunks.”
“Oh s—” he started to say and growle...
December 18, 2012
Homecoming - Day 5
He took his eyes off the tablet and focused on sprinting through the ship, charging through the hatch into the forward storage compartment less than a minute later. Inside were various bits and pieces stacked neatly by Aru’s various repair chassis. He grabbed an air cannister and looked around for a mask.
“Aru? I’m not finding a mask.”
“I’m afraid there aren’t any on board.”
He sputtered a bit and swallowed, throat suddenly a bit dry. “None?”
“Confirmed: None.”
Straight from the hose then. He glan...
December 17, 2012
Homecoming - Day 4
Corwin’s mind raced with all the thoughts a novice pilot’s brain immediately latches onto and won’t let go of when faced with an unknown ship in the middle of nowhere approaching quickly. He had visions of being boarded by a heavily armed pirate crew and spaced, or having his ship blown out from under him before he had a chance to do anything about it. The Night Star was in bad enough shape that he half-expected the latter to happen even without help from an outside force, so he quickly found...
