Now Available for Pre-Order: Miss Delight's Mistake
Miss Delight's Mistake is the first release for December 2024, and is now available for pre-order. Releasing on December 5, 2024, this science-fiction short story follows an Odyssey operative as they investigate some disappearances from an archaeological dig on a frontier world.
What's it About?
Miss Delight's Mistake is a science-fiction short story involving an archaeological dig funded by tourism,from which the tourists are going missing, a mysterious cavern where the magic takes place. As an Odyssey agent, and a big brother looking for his sister, I had to go undercover to find out what was going on...and hope Agent Delight had my back as much as she said she did. Because operational triage was what she did best, and how was I going to get out of there if she decided she had a better lead to follow.
How Does it Start?
“Welcome to the Ruins” he said, standing proudly by the gate in his trim, yellow jacket, light blue shirt and bright, yellow pants. “My name is Gerhard Rothenberg, and I’ll be your guide and escort for today.”
I stared at him. He was so…bright. From his clothing to his gleaming smile, he was enough to make my eyes hurt. He was not brilliant enough, though, for me to miss the sandstone and ochre uniforms of the security team members, or for me to fail to notice they carried the latest HammerLite Sonic-Pulse Combination guns. Not the usual kind of armament for Koolen’s Wildkats—their weapons were usually a lot less subtle.
They were also one of the top firms in the security field. If they’d been operating in the same space as Odyssey, we’d have had to consider them rivals. As it was, I was glad to have them nearby.
According to my briefing, one of those teams would go into the ruins with us, and the other would remain at the gates. No one had explained the need for the teams, just that we had to obey them in an emergency, and that they had our safety as their only priority.
I wondered what they had to keep us safe from. The brochures didn’t mention anything about dangerous wildlife on Jehornak, not in this region, at least. Of course, the people that wrote the brochures also owned the planet, so it wasn’t like they had anything to hide, right?
“If you’ll step this way, please,” Gerhard said, and opened the gate.
They had found the ruins five years ago, and opened it up to tourists and archaeologists alike, running a lottery to see who’d be granted entry. It was the only fair way, they said, the only way to ensure that it wasn’t just the rich who got to see a new wonder of the galaxies. There were ways to get past that, of course, and I’d had reason to try. Last year, my sister, Alice, had won entry, and she hadn’t returned.
This year, my employers had analyzed every single person on the tour list and found one we could bribe. I hadn’t been the only one to lose someone they loved. Research showed people disappeared in the ruins. We hadn’t been able to confirm exactly how many, but most of those who went didn’t return, and no one had worked it out yet. No one, until my sister had got a note out, and someone on an Odyssey cruise ship had jokingly told a friend who’d won the trip to make sure they didn’t suddenly decide to go adventuring.
“Adventuring?” A crew member had overheard them.
She was buxom, blonde and had the friendliest green eyes they had ever seen. Her badge had named her Emily Delight. She also blushed in the most attractive way.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”
But both guests had been happy to entertain her curiosity, explaining about the lottery, the ruins, and the longest archaeological dig in the universe. One of them had told her how his littlest sister had won that lottery, and then decided to go and explore the jungle world of Cathach, six galaxies away, straight after.
“And she was the most stay-at-home person you could ever meet,” Braiden Bukoski had said. “I think she only went to the ruins because she knew one of the archaeologists there, and she’d been chasing him for years. He’s eminent, and a professor, and comes from a family with more money than sense. I told her he wasn’t natural, and she just went all dreamy on me and said ‘but his family’s chasing him for an heir, and I’d never have to worry about leaving home again’. And then, all of a sudden, it’s Cathach this, and ruins that, and have-to-see-the-universe-while-I’m-still-young, and not a mention of poor Tuds, anywhere. It’s a darn shame, really.”
“Tuds?”
“Tudor Amajadin Baker the Five Hundred and Ninety-Fourth. You’ll find him on the net easily enough.”
Hostess Delight had smiled sweetly at him, and then glanced quickly at the clock, her heart-shaped face crumbling in a comical mixture of horror and disappointment. She’d turned, pouting, to the fellow who’d received the warning, and stepped away.
“Duty calls, and I’m going to be late. I’d love to hear about your plans. Another time?”
“Any time,” he’d agreed, and they’d watched her hurry off.
“She noticed you,” said the man, who’d lost his sister.
“Yeah, I wonder if she’ll introduce me to that cook she likes so much.”
“You are a disgrace, Otty.”
“Yeah, but still…”
And both of them had sighed, and not said anything else for quite some time.
Miss Delight had that effect on most men, although it was a first for her fiancé, Jeremy. She didn’t have that effect on me. I knew what a piece of work she could be, and that was why I was standing in line, wondering who the hell had dressed the guide, and whether those ultra-modern, cutting-edge weapons the security team was carrying were everything they were cracked up to be.
Where Do You Find It?
OR
You can find it as part of Tales of Odyssey and Miss Delight, a collection of short fiction and poetry found at one of the locations listed at this Books2Read link: https://books2read.com/u/3LnZ95
OR
You can access it as part of the Wanderers and above subscriptions on my ReamStories page, here: https://reamstories.com/cmsimpsonwriter
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