NaNoWriMo Chapter 2
Before getting to the main point of this post, we wanted to take a moment to offer our sincere appreciation for the men and women who serve (and have served) our country. Our freedom is because of your service and dedication. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do!
Last week, the Mr. shared Chapter 1 of his NaNoWriMo project (2,000 words written daily) with you. Read on as the adventure continues in Chapter 2, and keep checking back in. We will continue releasing chapters upon completion. We'd love to hear your feedback. Please consider leaving a comment below or shooting us an email (mr@wolfestew.com).
And now, sit back enjoy as...
Chapter 2
Walter
shaded his eyes from the afternoon sun.
It was sliced in two by the ring of moonrock, but it still shone
brightly. His sister and he were saddled
up in military gear. He wasn’t too happy
with their new predicament. The council
had assigned them to a heavy cruiser, instead of a colony ship, which meant
stricter regulations than a colony ship.
They would not have their single cabin and would have to reside in the
common barracks with all the other crew.
Only high-level officers had separate bunks for privacy. But at least they were leaving Earth. As a reward for their last mission, the
council had deposited a large sum in appreciation. Ether was the rarest commodity in the known
galaxy. It’s uses were still not
completely known, but there seemed to be many.
Jess
and Walter had talked about their plan before setting sail on the heavy
cruiser. It had been a quick meeting in
the privacy of their small cabin near the airstrip. They would work the job until they got into
the new colonies. They would retire
their commissions, and hire themselves out on a commercial ship, until they
could buy their own. This was a huge
change, and risky as anything, but it was their future. Jess kept calling it destiny, but Walter
would just shrug the word off.
Jess
lowered her head under the low entryway, as did Walter, and they found
themselves in a low-lit environment. The
lights were white and were embedded into the walls of the hallways. These would turn red at night, since there
was no other way to tell time in the dark of space. Each shift would need to know what time it
was, to ensure the exact schedule of a military ship. Consistency and efficiency were needed at all
times. Jess looked around and shrugged,
“Well its not stylish, but it’ll do.”
Walter just shook his head in exasperation and followed his
sister through the ship’s corridors. It
didn’t take them long to find the barracks.
It was tight…cramped really.
Walter was used to tight spaces, especially being in a spacesuit for
most missions. Jess on the other hand
was looking a bit squeamish, having been always able to enjoy the inside of a
fairly spacious cockpit. They would make
do. This was just the start of this
journey. Jess nodded and put her best
face of resolve into place.
“All quarters!
Emergency! Code Red!” The ship’s alarm blared through the
compartment.
Jess and Walter ran down the corridors, splitting up near
the middle of the ship. Walter was
expected to help with security at the outer doors in case of unwelcome boarding
parties. Jess shot up toward the forward
section, where she would help in the main command center in navigation. As Jess reached the command deck, she
realized what was happening. She could
see the captain of the ship with his hands behind his back, shouting out
commands. “Okay, that’s enough ensign,
call the ship to stand down.”
“Yes, sir.” The
ensign flipped a switch and then spoke calmly into the comms. “All hands stand down. I repeat, stand down.”
Now, Jess wasn’t stunned by the commands given, knowing that
most commanders would run their crews through similar training
simulations. She was stunned by the face
of the captain. Captain Argent turned to
her, and he smiled genuinely at her. His
ears seemed to move with his smile, making him look very comical. “Well, howdy Captain Argent!”
“Hello, Jess, and welcome aboard! A bit surprised to see me, eh?”
“You could say that cap’n.
But a very nice surprise. You
always were good to me and my brother.”
The captain’s smile faded, and he moved to clasp his hands
in front of him. “Well, Jess, there will
be no special treatment here. You will
do as you are commanded and if your conduct is fitting, then we will have a
good flight. If not, well, let’s just
not go there. What do you say?”
Smiling, he turned away from her and issued more mundane
orders to the command crew.
Jess was left flabbergasted.
So it was gonna be a tight ship she sailed on for this flight. She resolved to make the captain and her
brother proud. Just wait til she told
Wally who was in charge. She almost
chuckled outright, but held it in. This
flight was gonna be entertaining at the very least.
Now,
the thing about a heavy cruiser, is that it is a medium-sized warship. It is faster than a battleship, but slower
than a destroyer. It has armaments in
the mid-range, right between a battleship and a destroyer. The ship is built for offensive and defensive
campaigns. It is possibly the most used
warship in any space battle. The only
thing that troubled Walter about this, was why were they being sent into the
frontier alone. It just didn’t make
sense. They weren’t protecting a convoy
of merchant ships, or a military fleet sent from Earth. So, what was their mission?
That
question would have to wait until he had more time to think. Right now, well, he had his hands full
patrolling the full length of the ship.
As he passed by one of the lobbies used for recreation by the off-duty
crew, he was able to catch a glimpse out one of the viewports. It was like looking at the red dusk of
Earth’s simple sky; yet it seemed pulled out into the actual sky. No horizon could be seen, and pulsating light
fed the scene with hues that should not be possible. He loved space, and its unique
qualities. Once they had their own ship,
they would be able to explore these beautiful scenes at will. They just had to fulfill their duties for the
next two years.
Finding
out that the Captain was Argent was a bit of a shock, and his sister had
laughed loudly in his face after seeing his expression. She could be rude at times, well quite a few
times, okay maybe his whole life, but he still loved her. He would find his own way to get back at her,
something subtle, she hated subtlety. He
smirked as he thought through his plans, staring, literally, into space. “So, kid, you got yourself stuck on patrol,
but your patrol seems stuck.” A burly
looking man, bald, with small ears and a large bulgy nose stood next to him. The man seemed unkempt, dirt smudges on his
rolled-up sleeves, and a grayish-white undershirt sticking out of his uniform
only added to this image. “Uh, yeah,
sorry, I’ll be going...” Walter started
to move down the hallway. The man
slapped him on the back hard and laughed, “I was just kidding with you,
boy. I just got off my shift and you
look like an interesting addition to this crew.
Seein’ as I know most of the folks that belong to the ‘Lionguard’.”
“Oh yeah…?” Unsure, Walter wavered between continuing his
patrol and talking with this newcomer.
“What did you do before this, son? You look like you know your way ‘round a
ship.”
“I…we…my sister and I used to do moon missions for the
council.” Walter sighed feeling the
shame of having left that part of his life.
“Wha?! Why’d you join
this cruise ship? Ya know we just go
from one end of one galaxy to the end of another, right? Boring as anything!” The man looked exasperated and his bald pate
was turning a shade of red that did not look healthy.
“Yeah, well, sorry.
I’ll be moving along now, sir.”
Walter started down the hallway at a quick pace.
“Don’t call me ‘sir’, kid, I ain’t no overblown
officer!” The man turned back into the
lounge and threw his arms in the air.
“Can you believe this generation of spacers?!”
Walter was dealing with the anger, shame, and confusion of
the encounter with the man. He was
smart! They made this decision to gain
the freedom they had always desired.
That man seemed to think he had given up a golden ticket. He was wrong, and he had no idea of the risk
to life and limb that they had taken daily. It may be boring on this ship, but they would
live long enough to find the future they both desired. Jess understood the plan, that’s all that
mattered.
As he
walked down the hallway, a shudder ran down the middle of the ship. At first he thought he was just imagining it,
but a second shudder, much stronger warned him that his instincts had been
right. A blaring alarm started, “All
Hands, prepare for boarding! Intruder Alert!”
Walter ran toward the front of the ship, and then stopped suddenly. He had been running to protect Jess, but he
had realized that his first duty was to guard any nearby entryways. He positioned himself at the closest airlock,
looking up and down the corridors for anything suspicious. The man that he had met before, was walking
quickly down the hallway from the lounge, he had a barstool in his hands. He was stocky and muscular, looking
dangerous, even with such a ridiculous weapon.
“Sorry kid, the name’s Tyke. I
just realized we didn’t get off to a good start. So…your name being??” Tyke gave him a sideways glance with a lifted
eyebrow.
“My name is Walter.
Sorry if I upset you back there…”
Walter stared back at him with a sheepish look.
“No problem Wally! We
are all family on this ship. Anybody
messes with one of us, they mess with all of us!” Tyke’s glare turned to the airlock, where a
thud could be heard against the outer door.
Jess
was trying to make out all of the readouts on the security screens in front of
her. “Captain! They are small ships, one or two-person
craft, and they seem to be all over our ship.
They are trying to enter from every entry point available. It looks like they are trying to overwhelm
our defenses!”
Captain Argent turned from his own station, “How in the
world did they bypass our anti-boarding defenses? Those guns could have easily cleared every
craft off of the hull!”
They both looked at each other with eyes wide, shouting in
unison, “We’ve been betrayed!”
Another ensign at a station close to the captain shouted,
“Sir, all airlocks are being opened.”
“They are breaking through already?!?” Argent looked about
to punch the screen.
“No, sir, they are being opened by the software!”
Jess ran over to the ensign’s computer screen. What she saw there made her realize how dire
the situation was at this moment.
Several hundred intruders would enter with very few security measures to
show any resistance. The few security
officers available at the entries would be overrun by the unknown intruders,
especially if they had anything similar to a low-tech laser pistol. Her brother was down there, and she couldn’t
do anything to help!
Walter
turned to Tyke, “You know that barstool isn’t going to do much against actual
firearms, right?”
Tyke grimaced, “Yeah, but it’s better’n usin’ my
hands!” With that he let out a sharp
bark of a laugh.
Walter imagined if his hands hadn’t been occupied, he would
have given him a huge slap on the back.
He was grateful that Tyke had his hands full at the moment.
The
banging on the door intensified, and Walter stepped closer to look through the
viewport. He saw men in spacesuits, they
were old suits, and the men had low-tech laser pistols. They looked like a ragtag bunch of
outlaws. Suddenly, the full weight of a
barstool came crashing down on his back and neck. As the darkness overtook him,
he could hear Tyke say, “Sorry, kid, but we got work to do, and I ain’t lettin’
no one get killed if I can help it.” The
swish of air from the airlock opening was the last thing he felt, along with a
feeling of despair and worry for his sister.
Jess
turned to look at the security screens, her brother had been incapacitated by a
traitorous member of their crew. She
slammed her fists into the console near her, provoking a light alarm from the
console itself. She quickly looked back
and saw the captain with his eyebrow raised, looking at her. “Everything alright Jess? I mean, notwithstanding the current order of
things.” He smirked and continued, “Do
not always think that the situation is beyond our control, your brother was
knocked out, not killed. This is a good
thing.” He came over and laid his hand
gently on her shoulder. “So calm down,
and help me figure out how to save the ship, not help destroy her.” Another smirk. Jess sighed and let her shoulders relax,
“Aye, aye captain! Let’s figure a way
out of this.” She put more enthusiasm in
her voice than she felt, since she felt none.
Her brother was her life, and after the deaths of their parents, it
became even more true. Suddenly, she was
hit with an idea. “Sir! If we reset the
ship’s engine core, we could kick out the software that is messin’ with
everything!”
Nodding Argent stared at her, “But, who, in God’s name, will
make the trek through the underbelly of the ship to bypass the intruders? It has to be someone small, and have
knowledge of the ship’s engine core.” As
he said it, Argent, squeezed his eyes shut and put his hand to them.
“I can do it!” Jess
lit up, and started toward the bulwark entry hatch.
Sighing, the captain nodded, “Okay, but if you are going we
are fitting you in a fibroflesh suit. That should take care of most weapons
they have; and give you an upper hand if the air gets sucked out into
space. They were expensive suits, rare,
and only used on the most dangerous missions.
Her brother had always worn one, which had shown how dangerous his job
had been. As she suited up, the captain
pulled a dagger-looking object from his belt.
When he unsheathed it she could see it start to glow blue and heard it
humming. “This is an energy blade, it is
only given to captains. Use it, and do
the work that needs to be done. Well,
and then get your butt back here alive!”
He turned and walked back to his command chair, sitting down swiftly.
As she
opened the hatch, she looked back to the bridge. These people were going to possibly die if
she did not do her duty well. Jess
promised her brother, in her mind’s eye, that she would not fail him. “I’ll fix this kiddo.” She whispered under her breath as she closed
the hatch behind her, and the darkness of the small passageway enveloped her.
(Click to "turn the page" to Chapter 3)
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