Spheres of Influence: Chapter 18

  Well, we'd heard that Sun Wu Kung had got himself in trouble (is anyone surprised? Bueller? Beulller?); let's see how, and what kind of trouble it is...     -----     Chapter 18.      "Go enjoy yourself for a little bit, Wu. I'm heading back to the Embassy to give Ariane the good news."        Part of him wanted to protest that he should probably go back, but… finally on my own in the Arena! So many things to see! So many things to do! "All right, DuQuesne! I am sure she'll be so excited to hear Simon's [ Continue reading... ]

Spheres of Influence: Chapter 16

  Time to be out and about a bit...   -----     Chapter 16.      "Are you sure this is okay, DuQuesne? I mean, I really really want to go with you, but you want me to guard Ariane, and—"        "Relax, Wu," DuQuesne said, smiling. Already talking a mile a minute. "We all agreed you needed to be able to get out and about."        "Quite so," agreed Simon absently, as they made their way along the broad corridor towards the elevator to the Outer Gateway. Low, flat tracks of shaped superconductor now lay [ Continue reading... ]

Spheres of Influence: Chapter 5

  Well, they now knew they had another urgent reason to go back... so it's back to the Arena!     -----     Chapter 5.      "Final countdown to Transition," Ariane Austin said,and Wu finally felt a tingle of anticipation. To a new world…        The hours spent preparing the ship for departure had been… a combination of depressing and confusing. He knew he couldn't help with any of the preparations – this was not like any ship he had ever been aboard before – and he hated having to sit still, let everyone [ Continue reading... ]

Spheres of Influence: CHAPTER 1

    And so we begin the snippeting of Spheres of Influence, leading up to the release of the novel in mid-August!   ------     Chapter 1. The slender blond man glanced up from his desk, startled – DuQuesne had, of course, been suppressing the station security systems. Couldn't take a chance that someone would be warned, if things had gone bad.        The startled look immediately gave way to caution. "Stop right there, please."        DuQuesne stopped immediately; Ariane did the same. He saw [ Continue reading... ]