New Story: Lightning Strike
Well, my other story is on hold as you can tell. Now I have another one I'm working on. Here's a sneak peek:
I quickly hid my face in the crook of my shoulder as my senses were assaulted by blinding light. After spending more time in total darkness than I had preciously thought humanly possible, any amount of light was intolerable. When my senses had finally adjusted to the presence of light, I blinked, examining my surroundings and those around me. I was in what appeared to be some kind of metal bunker, and as for the people around me, I did not recognize any of them, so this couldn’t be some kind of fraternity prank gone array. There were about 10 people in all, all of them had the bearing of military but they were dressed in mis-matched fatigues and military uniform pieces. And they were all staring at me.
I had been silent for the past while, and now felt like the most ideal moment to break that self imposed vow of silence with a string of profanity that would have made my military grand-dad blush. “Where in the Name of Giale am I? Who are you? What the fade shift do you want? If you are after money, you’ve picked the wrong girl to kidnap. You won’t get a single credit out of me or my family.”
I had done my share of screaming and cussing when I had first been picked up, but my extended silence afterward must have caused them to relax because many of them jumped and some even looked startled at my use of profanity. “What the banner are you staring at? You’re going to hear a lot worse if you do not untie me this instant,” I kept on yelling about anything and everything for the next few minutes.
“Will someone please shut her up? We many be thousands of clicks from the nearest living soul, but if she keeps this up, even they will hear her.” The group around me parted as if on an unspoken cue to reveal the source of the voice. The woman who had spoken was tall with a regal air; this was a woman accustomed to being obeyed. Five other people stood just inside the nearest door. I was instantly silent, I knew that voice; but I shouldn’t be hearing it now, and especially not here. I had seen her in person on a few occasions, but even if I hadn’t, everyone in Crylator knew the face of Commander Laine.
Before I could stop myself, I opened my mouth and spoke, “But you’re dead!”
She arched an eyebrow sardonically, “Obviously you were misinformed.”
Question after question swarmed through my head, each demanding and answer, but my throat refused to work.
Then all the questions and exclamations were silenced in my mind the moment I saw a figure step out of the gloom of the doorway behind her. If I hadn’t already been on the ground, I might have fallen, my mind and ears refused to work, and for that split second it was as if the whole earth froze in its revolution.
My body reacted without impute from my brain. If it had waited for impute I doubt that I would have allowed the impulse.
No one had expected me to do anything, with my wrists being bound still, and even if they had been expecting it, I doubt they could have stopped me.
“Richard,” the half scream, half cry echoed off the metal walls as I launched myself up and past Commander Lain and into the cause of the long silence between my father and I.
Those guarding me weren’t the only ones surprised by my charge. While his arms caught hold of me, Richard had to take a step back to keep my momentum from knocking the two of us to the ground…again.
I’m not a babbler as a rule, but every rule had an exception, and I guess this was mine. I’m not sure all of what I said, but I do know I repeated, “You’re alive,” and “He told me you were dead,” many times.
Eventually I became aware of the shocked silence around us. Well, almost silence, someone near by was trying very hard not to be heard laughing. I turned my face from Richard’s neck to seek out just who it was that was laughing. I did not locate the offending source until I craned my neck as far as I could and saw a small pale person, more girl than woman. She was hiding her mouth behind her hand, “Like a gaffer mouse to honeyed cheese.”
“T-Tish?” What was it for me, I’d had too many shocks and passed out cold.
****
When I opened my eyes again I was laying down on something slightly less uncomfortable than the floor. The pale face came into my view, and a pair of almost colorless blue eyes blinked, “Greetings from the dead.” My turn now to blink. “Well, it’s not really from the dead, because I’m not dead. But then again, they say that we live in the memories of those who love us, and in your memories I would be dead. Only, now that I’m talking to you I’m no longer dead in your memories. Now if I’d been talking to you through a halo-projector you could have assumed it was pre-recorded a long time ago, and that I was still dead, thus I would be greeting you from the dead even though-”
“Shut up Tish,” I knew if I didn’t interrupt her monologue soon, there’d be no way of stopping her.
“Shutting up.” Thankfully she did.
I propped myself up on my elbows, “What happened?”
“You fainted.”
I had been away from Tish long enough to forget how specific I had to be when talking to her. “I know that grainer-brain, I mean what happened; everyone was told you and the rest of the crew were killed.”
“The ship blew up.”
“How did you survive?”
“I wasn’t aboard.”
“Where were you?”
“On the ground.”
“How did the rest of the crew survive?”
“On the ship.”
“But it exploded.”
“No it didn’t.”
“But you just said it did.”
“No I didn’t.”
“She means there were two ships,” a voice came from over my shoulder. I smiled and turned to look at Richard. “They didn’t trust Tish to not just let you walk out of here, so I got babysitting duty.”
“You seem to get that a lot when I’m around,” I winked at him. “How’s about you tell me what happened and save me a few hours of Tish-decipher time?”
“Save you what?” His confusion made it clear he did not spend much time around Tish.
“Tish-decipher time: the time it would take me to unravel what she says to make sense of it.”
I quickly hid my face in the crook of my shoulder as my senses were assaulted by blinding light. After spending more time in total darkness than I had preciously thought humanly possible, any amount of light was intolerable. When my senses had finally adjusted to the presence of light, I blinked, examining my surroundings and those around me. I was in what appeared to be some kind of metal bunker, and as for the people around me, I did not recognize any of them, so this couldn’t be some kind of fraternity prank gone array. There were about 10 people in all, all of them had the bearing of military but they were dressed in mis-matched fatigues and military uniform pieces. And they were all staring at me.
I had been silent for the past while, and now felt like the most ideal moment to break that self imposed vow of silence with a string of profanity that would have made my military grand-dad blush. “Where in the Name of Giale am I? Who are you? What the fade shift do you want? If you are after money, you’ve picked the wrong girl to kidnap. You won’t get a single credit out of me or my family.”
I had done my share of screaming and cussing when I had first been picked up, but my extended silence afterward must have caused them to relax because many of them jumped and some even looked startled at my use of profanity. “What the banner are you staring at? You’re going to hear a lot worse if you do not untie me this instant,” I kept on yelling about anything and everything for the next few minutes.
“Will someone please shut her up? We many be thousands of clicks from the nearest living soul, but if she keeps this up, even they will hear her.” The group around me parted as if on an unspoken cue to reveal the source of the voice. The woman who had spoken was tall with a regal air; this was a woman accustomed to being obeyed. Five other people stood just inside the nearest door. I was instantly silent, I knew that voice; but I shouldn’t be hearing it now, and especially not here. I had seen her in person on a few occasions, but even if I hadn’t, everyone in Crylator knew the face of Commander Laine.
Before I could stop myself, I opened my mouth and spoke, “But you’re dead!”
She arched an eyebrow sardonically, “Obviously you were misinformed.”
Question after question swarmed through my head, each demanding and answer, but my throat refused to work.
Then all the questions and exclamations were silenced in my mind the moment I saw a figure step out of the gloom of the doorway behind her. If I hadn’t already been on the ground, I might have fallen, my mind and ears refused to work, and for that split second it was as if the whole earth froze in its revolution.
My body reacted without impute from my brain. If it had waited for impute I doubt that I would have allowed the impulse.
No one had expected me to do anything, with my wrists being bound still, and even if they had been expecting it, I doubt they could have stopped me.
“Richard,” the half scream, half cry echoed off the metal walls as I launched myself up and past Commander Lain and into the cause of the long silence between my father and I.
Those guarding me weren’t the only ones surprised by my charge. While his arms caught hold of me, Richard had to take a step back to keep my momentum from knocking the two of us to the ground…again.
I’m not a babbler as a rule, but every rule had an exception, and I guess this was mine. I’m not sure all of what I said, but I do know I repeated, “You’re alive,” and “He told me you were dead,” many times.
Eventually I became aware of the shocked silence around us. Well, almost silence, someone near by was trying very hard not to be heard laughing. I turned my face from Richard’s neck to seek out just who it was that was laughing. I did not locate the offending source until I craned my neck as far as I could and saw a small pale person, more girl than woman. She was hiding her mouth behind her hand, “Like a gaffer mouse to honeyed cheese.”
“T-Tish?” What was it for me, I’d had too many shocks and passed out cold.
****
When I opened my eyes again I was laying down on something slightly less uncomfortable than the floor. The pale face came into my view, and a pair of almost colorless blue eyes blinked, “Greetings from the dead.” My turn now to blink. “Well, it’s not really from the dead, because I’m not dead. But then again, they say that we live in the memories of those who love us, and in your memories I would be dead. Only, now that I’m talking to you I’m no longer dead in your memories. Now if I’d been talking to you through a halo-projector you could have assumed it was pre-recorded a long time ago, and that I was still dead, thus I would be greeting you from the dead even though-”
“Shut up Tish,” I knew if I didn’t interrupt her monologue soon, there’d be no way of stopping her.
“Shutting up.” Thankfully she did.
I propped myself up on my elbows, “What happened?”
“You fainted.”
I had been away from Tish long enough to forget how specific I had to be when talking to her. “I know that grainer-brain, I mean what happened; everyone was told you and the rest of the crew were killed.”
“The ship blew up.”
“How did you survive?”
“I wasn’t aboard.”
“Where were you?”
“On the ground.”
“How did the rest of the crew survive?”
“On the ship.”
“But it exploded.”
“No it didn’t.”
“But you just said it did.”
“No I didn’t.”
“She means there were two ships,” a voice came from over my shoulder. I smiled and turned to look at Richard. “They didn’t trust Tish to not just let you walk out of here, so I got babysitting duty.”
“You seem to get that a lot when I’m around,” I winked at him. “How’s about you tell me what happened and save me a few hours of Tish-decipher time?”
“Save you what?” His confusion made it clear he did not spend much time around Tish.
“Tish-decipher time: the time it would take me to unravel what she says to make sense of it.”