Sunday Snippet: Viable Options

What a week! Mybrain is all spinny at the moment because I have an abundance of work projectsin my inbox. I love having a full calendar. That said, I need about five morehours in each day, please and thank you.

Honestly, theoverflowing inbox comes at an excellent time for me. I have several things thatneed attention, one of them being the brakes on my car. Now to buckle under andget the work done.

Weather in Ohio istypical for March. Maybe a little on the extreme side, but March always seemsto be whiplashing back and forth between winter and spring. Today is springlikewith temps in the fifties. Yesterday we barely broke freezing for our high.

Another verylimited week for viewing. I'm not kidding when I say five more hours each daywould be helpful. Just saying.

I did finish up theDeath in Paradise episode I started last week. So sad to see Floranceleave again. But what a way to go out. And pretty sure we'll see her again.

Also started a BeyondParadise episode, which will finish out the first season. I'm reallyenjoying this show.

That's pretty muchit for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Viable Options,a novella that brings a couple together under intense circumstances.

Here's the miniblurb:

Karlin Hex and Jay Shaliman are trapped high in themountains when their planet is attacked and left for ruin. Jay decides plan Ais to find a ship, get off the planet and find their way to the military fleetor a viable spaceport. Karlin finds the notion admirable but wonders what hisbackup option is. That's easy—plans B through Z are the same as plan A.

And a sneaky peek…

Karlin couldn't escape the stenchof failure. "How the hell does an attack occur with zero notice? What thehell is the purpose of a remote outpost if it can't capture an advancewarning?" Her shoulders slumped.Okay, she didn't personally fuck up.Not really. But an attack on the scale of what they suffered should have hadsome kind of chatter, right?She rewound the last twenty-fourhours and scrolled through the audio looking for anything she could've missed."There's nothing." With a sigh, she signed off the base system."No one out there to hear me anyway." She couldn't leave to try andget to a base until morning. "And what good will it do?" The closestone lay in ruin and everyone who could get off the planet would be gone withintwelve hours.Geez. Everything tilted a littlesideways. The crushing weight of despair tried to swallow her whole.She pushed the weight of reactionback. Couldn't deal with or wrap her head around the idea she'd be dead soon.Getting up, she grabbed a bottle of alcohol and decided to drown her misery inwhiskey.Twisting the cap off, she took along swallow. "Here's to the end of … well … the world, I guess." Shetucked the bottle under her arm and left the comm station area.Crossing into the small livingspace, she walked through and ended up out in the garage area. Setting thewhiskey on the workbench, she pulled several of the storage bins down from theshelves and poked through them. Lots of odds and ends that could come in handy.She grabbed another quick drink then wandered to the first aid station, pullingsupplies out of their containers and stuffing them into another crate.She followed up by digging throughthe fresh food supply. "Plenty here … not that I'll be around long enoughto worry if this stuff goes bad." No doubt they would.Rifling through the rest of thecupboards, she found several cases of MREs. Meals ready to eat might not havegourmet quality, but they traveled well and provided nutrition in convenientrations. Absently, she gathered a decent supply—she had no idea why—then stowedthem in the garage with medical supplies.After making a quick dinner of eggson toast, she bedded down with the whiskey for comfort and a loose plan to spendthe next day weighing her very limited options for survival.

I love to take ableak outlook and sprinkle little glimmers of hope, even if they'resubconscious sparkles.

 

That's it for thisweek. Catch everyone on the flipside.

ML Skye