Carlie’s Chapter 2—Dear Tiger: I Miss You

Today’s Completion—Rogue Retrieval Just Released - Miguel Unmade

Carlie’s Chapter 2—Dear Tiger: I Miss You

LAST WEEK, Simone hid a package. This week, things caught up with her...Chapter 2 – The Secret Letter

From: Simone Michaels, Boarder 9652, Mail Room 23, Locked Bag 359, Box 908, Delta Quadrant, Midpoint Campus, Ambron’s Interstellar Academy, FedExplore Inc. Mail Room 98, East Melbourne Mail Complex, Australia, Terra Firma

Date: 12 August 3049

Dear Tiges
THEY MOVED ME!!!They took me off Emerald, and they moved me! What am I gonna do?They wouldn’t let me write you until I was, and I quote “settled”. I should let you know that what they meant by settled was two weeks of every kind of test and exam you can think of. Oh, and when I say they moved me, I mean they moved me through at least three different worlds before they settled me here. In Melbourne! On good, old Terra.The first world wasn’t actually for testing. It was where mum and dad’s expedition had been based out of. You know, the place where they keep the guys that do the number crunching and say how long the funds are going to last for the expedition, and who can have how much and when.If it looks like the expedition has found a world that FedExplore can sell chunks of to a number of different interest groups, then the expedition gets more money, more often, and it can stay longer. If it’s nothing but a ball of useless dust or slush or whatever, then the expedition gets pulled and sent somewhere else.Anyway, this office was the place where they told me that mum and dad’s expedition had disappeared. They also told me—and this is secret, Tiges, so I’ll post this letter secretly in case they’re reading my mail—they told me that Intergalactic Policing Services had indicted the planet.You know, indicted, as in cut it off from the rest of the known universe, with no one getting in and no one getting out, so even if mum and dad’s expedition hadn’t disappeared, they’d never have been allowed to leave, and I still wouldn’t be able to see them. Ever. Again.Tiges, this is horrible!FedExplore aren’t even allowed to retrieve the data-ship, and you know how impressed that would have made them. I don’t know what’s going on, Tiges, but it sure is weird.And another thing, you know that package? They asked me if I’d received any large parcels in the mail lately. Of course, I said no. I didn’t want to disappear, after all, and who knew what was going on.I said I hadn’t even received any letters from my mum and dad. The FedExplore guy said he was sorry, but he also looked relieved, like me getting no letters was good news for him, even if it was mega-sad for me.He said they’d let me know what had happened as soon as the IGPs would talk to them.It’s got me worried, Tiges. What could have gone so wrong that the IGPs won’t talk to mum and dad’s bosses? No way I’m gonna tell them about the parcel, now. I’ve left it in my trunk. Sure am glad you told me how to line it so the scanners don’t work. The way things are going, I’m never going to know what’s inside it, because I’m too scared to open it.I gotta go, Tiges. If I want to post this letter somewhere so that they don’t know I’ve sent it, it’ll have to be while we’re on this class excursion. You be careful when you write me back. Don’t say a word about the you-know-what in case they do read my mail. See if you can find out anything for me.

Thanks heaps,

Simone.

P.S. If I give you the address for my friends, can you tell them I’ll write as soon as I can… and can you tell them that I really miss them?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The complete series is available as short, individual ebooks, and will become available as an omnibus, later this year. In the meantime, you can find them on this blog, until one week after the last chapter in the last book of the series has been posted, at which point this series will be taken down, and a new series serialised on site.