First Words for the Day: July 5-9, 2018
I got sick last week, and then spent
the first part of this week catching up, so I’m behind on the first words. Rather
than hit you with four posts on the same thing, I thought I’d just bundle
things up into one, so, without further ado, here are the first words from July
fifth through ninth.
We’d spent a Terran standard year away from K’Kavor, hadn’t
been back to the sector since the arach advance force were driven from the
planet. Odyssey had handled the post-invasion mop-up, and we’d taken the crew
for rehab, counselling, and recuperation to one of the inner sectors at
Odyssey’s behest. Couldn’t say they were anything if not possessive of their
allies’ good health.
It was worth the risk.
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July 5— Mack ‘n’ Me: The Transporter's Favour
The man clearly deserve the investigator’s title he wore. He
bulked out Abby’s lead, and added to both the information known and the avenues
to explore, earning a reproving “You’ve been holding out on me,” from Abby. The
search didn’t take long after that, no matter how many hours the clocks in our
heads told us we’d worked.
“Wanderer,”
Delight said, and the ship answered, before she could ask.
“We are underway,” she said. “Your teams are in training.”
Delight’s brows rose.
“Both of them?”
“I have broken all six
of them out of stasis,” Wanderer
said. “You will need to secure cooperation at Rigel’s Banter, the mining
headquarters, and from within the asteroid belt itself. You will need all your
teams. I have started them on Primer 7. Those that get through that unscathed
will begin on Primer 9, tomorrow. The rest will be in regen, from which they
will all progress to Primer 10.”
Delight sank back in her chair.
“That’s a tough rotation.”
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July 6— Mack ‘n’ Me: The Transporter's Favour
“You will be operating on the edge of lupar territory, and
against the sort of force required to subdue and keep a HMT ship locked down,
during extraction and forced transfer. The reconditioning team may also be
present. Have you ascertained if the facility is lupar or human-controlled?”
“Lupar.”
“Captain Star,” the Wanderer
continued, “Case has told me to confirm that she and her escort will reach
K’Kavoran space in a month of easy travel. She wishes to release the crew for
planetary leave and to rotate them through assistance duties with the vespis
and their human and weaver allies.”
“Approve it,” Mack said
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July 7—NO WORDS
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July 8— Mack ‘n’ Me: The Transporter's Favour
“We’ve been away from them long enough.”
Which was true.
We’d spent a Terran standard year away from K’Kavor, hadn’t
been back to the sector since the arach advance force were driven from the
planet. Odyssey had handled the post-invasion mop-up, and we’d taken the crew
for rehab, counselling, and recuperation to one of the inner sectors at
Odyssey’s behest. Couldn’t say they were anything if not possessive of their
allies’ good health.
“It’s because we want you on deck when we need you,” Delight
said, and I realised I’d drifted, again, that the rest of them were staring at
me.
“When we’re done with trips down Memory’s Lane,” Mack said,
and I felt myself blush. Man was in fine form given he’d just been dragged out
of the wolf lock-up.
His look turned to a scowl, and I blinked. Man also needed
to get the Hell over himself.
“Three rounds,” he said. “You owe me.”
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July 9— Mack ‘n’ Me: The Transporter's Favour
Abby hit Delight up, one more time, only to find she was
tied down at the station for the next two hours, and that most of Team One had
been seconded away. She’d be at least an hour, and we needed to cope. We also
needed to ‘shift our asses’ and ‘get it done’.
“Well,” Abs said, in a huff. “That’s inconvenient.”
“Yeah, but we can cause our own distractions,” I said, and
caught the looks of surprise from the boys. “What? Odyssey trained, remember?”
“And the rest,” Mack muttered, which only made me wonder
exactly how much he’d rifled through my head.
“Shutit!” I snapped, and brought up the station schematics
on Abby’s forward view. “Let’s assume the wolves have noticed the comms quiet
from their main base.”
I held up a hand to still a protest from Tens.
“Let’s just assume we’re not as clever as we think we are,
and there was some kind of real-time warning that went out there. Let’s assume
they’re kinda waiting for us to appear.”
“In which case we need Delight’s Team, more than we know,”
Mack muttered, and Tens nodded.
I shook my head.
“We need their fuzzy little heads otherwise
occupied,” I said, and Rohan snorted.
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River's Edge
I stood at the edge of the river, both feet
firmly planted amidst the sweet meadow grass, the toes of my boots scant inches
from the water. What would it be like, I wondered, to take that one step more?
Behind me bugles rang, and I glanced back,
trying to see through the cover of the trees, trying to gauge if I really had a
choice about the river, or if I was honestly thinking of facing the fate
roaring through the foliage. I turned. Perhaps that fate wouldn’t be as bad as
I’d heard. Perhaps…
One look at the bestial features of the
rider mounted on the giant boar, and I knew otherwise. The elders had been
sugar-coating the truth for years; the only reason our colony had survived was
because we paid a tribute in human lives—and I wasn’t going to be a part of it.
Whatever the stories were that surrounded the river, none of them promised the
horror I read on that face.
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Would you like to read more?
You can
find the first book in the Mack ‘n’ Me
‘n’ Odyssey series, Mack ‘n’ Me: Origins,
HERE
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