Well, they'd gotten a call from Orphan, who made a most interesting statement... ----- Chapter 8. "Welcome back, Captain Austin, Dr. DuQuesne," Orphan said expansively as she and Marc entered, Wu Kung just behind her. Simon was visiting Relgof and the Analytic, starting discussions to find out about the Sky Gates, while Gabrielle and Carl were moving their merchandise from the Grail to the Embassy; Laila Canning was currently at the Embassy in case others came to call. Orphan's hard, [ Continue reading... ]
Spheres of Influence: Chapter 7
June 26, 2013 By 2 Comments
They'd just sat down to discuss their problems... ----- Chapter 7. "Well, that does seem to rather complicate things," Laila said, pushing her own bobbed brown hair back with a distracted air. Ariane noted that she seemed to have absorbed the data-dump more easily than Carl. Not surprising – she was used to having three fully-active AISages before we came here, and losing them nearly killed her. If anyone can handle immense amounts of data in one shot, it's Dr. Laila Canning. "Yeah. Whoa." [ Continue reading... ]
Spheres of Influence: Chapter 6
June 24, 2013 By 2 Comments
Well, Our Heroes had arrived back in the Arena; it was time to head to the Embassy and meet up with the rest of the group... ----- Chapter 6. That's Wu, DuQuesne thought with a fond smile, even as he and the other three followed the impulsive Monkey King through. Even when he's on-duty, he's still a kid in so many ways. As they arrived, he heard Wu give an exclamation that meant roughly "wonderful!" . In a single flurry of motion Wu Kung streaked up the Gateway, reached the very crest of [ Continue reading... ]
Spheres of Influence: Chapter 5
June 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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 4
June 19, 2013 By 3 Comments
We continue, with our friends having made a worrisome discovery... ----- Chapter 4. Ariane looked at the mixture of anger, sorrow, and pain on DuQuesne's face, and the horror on that of the Hyperion Monkey King, and instantly understood. "Oh, my god," she murmured. "She was one of the five, wasn't she?" "Yeah," DuQuesne said slowly. "One of us. One of the best of us, in the beginning." "Five?" Simon echoed. She glanced at DuQuesne; he said nothing, but [ Continue reading... ]
Spheres of Influence: Chapter 3
June 17, 2013 By 7 Comments
Let's take a look at our third regular point of view... ----- Chapter 3. Simon jolted awake from the doze he'd been in, the restraints on Holy Grail's copilot seat keeping him from catapulting through the air. What… "We have a detection, Simon," his AISage Mio said, her projection materializing nearby. "Displaying now." Simon didn't question her assertion, but for his own peace of mind – or lack thereof – he checked the readings himself. The results did not comfort him. No [ Continue reading... ]
Spheres of Influence: Chapter 2
June 14, 2013 By 3 Comments
DuQuesne had finally gotten a friend to wake up... ----- Chapter 2. Ariane stood unmoving in the doorway, afraid to break the magic of that moment. Her own heart had leapt when Wu Kung's hand moved to stop DuQuesne, but the incredible light that had seemed to shine from Marc's face was something she'd never even imagined possible. She had heard tears of sadness being blown away in a wind of relief and happiness that she'd never thought Marc would ever feel. She just watched, holding her hand out to keep [ Continue reading... ]
Spheres of Influence: CHAPTER 1
June 12, 2013 By 2 Comments
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... ]
Spheres of Influence: Deleted Chapter Four
June 10, 2013 By 8 Comments
Herewith is the fourth, and last, of the deleted chapters of Spheres of Influence. Again, the editors were right to have me delete these, but there's stuff in here that may interest those generally interested in the universe GCA and Spheres take place in. ----- Chapter 4. "Why are we here?" Ariane asked. "Not that I mind, it's like coming home again." The immense racetrack spiraled and twisted, on the ground and in the sky, something that couldn't have been built hundreds of years [ Continue reading... ]
Spheres of Influence: Deleted Chapter 3
June 7, 2013 By 1 Comment
We continue with these postings. In this one... we get to learn more about where Ariane is going... and where DuQuesne was, once. ----- Chapter 3. "So where, exactly, are we going, Marc?" She saw DuQuesne give a tiny start at her words, the first either of them had spoken in the little spaceship since they'd left Kanzaki-Three several hours before. She'd been able to tell he needed to think for a while, but after this much time she felt she needed to say something. "We're actually going [ Continue reading... ]
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