They had one more roll of the dice to throw... ------ Chapter 12 Tavana gazed at the brilliant disc of the star – filtered, of course – that was the center of their hopes. "Program concluded, Sergeant. We made it; I think we must be, um, what, something like a hundred eighty million kilometers from the star right now. What now?" "Now we have to look for a planet we can land on," Campbell said easily. Tavana knew he was putting up a front, mostly for Maddox and Francisco. There was no guarantee of a [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Odyssey: Chapter 11
June 15, 2016 By Leave a Comment
It's when you're sleeping that questions occur... ----- Chapter 11. "Sergeant?" Xander whispered. He saw the eyes snap open, look around, registering where the Sergeant was, the person speaking to him, the fact that everything else seemed normal, in the time it took a normal person to blink. He's always ready for everything. "Sorry to wake you, sir," he said. Campbell sat up slowly. "I figure you must have something you want to say that the others shouldn't hear. If I agree with you, then there's no [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Odyssey: Chapter 10
June 13, 2016 By Leave a Comment
Our adventurers had finally fixed the stardrive... ------ Chapter 10. Samuel Campbell went into the cargo hold once he was sure that Tavana and Maddox were securing themselves. He still felt shaky inside; the relief that – once more – the suspension procedure had worked warred with his worry that Pearce still might not make it. It wasn't a good place for his head to be in, but he accepted that it would take a bit to drive the personal turmoil out. These ain't the best circumstances for keeping my distance, [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Odyssey: Chapter 9
June 10, 2016 By Leave a Comment
Well, they'd retrieved Lieutenant Haley... ----- Chapter 9. "Do you think we have enough, sir?" Sergeant Campbell didn't answer at once; Tavana could see he was still carefully transferring the contents of injector after injector into a treatment pack. Finally he looked up and Tavana was startled to see the lines on the Sergeant's face; they seemed far more pronounced now than they'd been when they were first marooned. "I wish to God I knew, son. To be dead honest with you… if it were just me [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Odyssey: Chapter 8
June 8, 2016 By 3 Comments
They were doing repairs... ----- Chapter 8. Xander watched the installation of the precious coil in his VRD, one of the gloved hands gripping the coil and the other tightening part of a not-quite visible fixture. "There, that's got it!" the Sergeant said. "Check the connectivity, would you?" "Connection shows good, sir!" Tavana answered from the pilot's seat. "We just had the Trapdoor status light go green!" "Well, now, that's a relief and a half." A tiny glint in [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Odyssey: Chapter 7
June 6, 2016 By 1 Comment
They had repairs to do... ----- Chapter 7. Campbell activated the shaped pad inside his suit; the sweat on his forehead and eyebrows was quickly wiped away. "All right, Tavana. I'm out." He stood on the dimly-visible hull of LS-88, the innumerable stars of the galaxy sprinkled across the utter darkness like frozen sparks embedded in obsidian. Low down and towards the rear of the landing shuttle, he could see the enigmatic nearby star – one he was pretty sure was less than a light-year off – gleaming [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Odyssey: Chapter 6
June 3, 2016 By Leave a Comment
Well, they had power, but they were still stranded in the vast dark... ------ Chapter 6. Xander blinked himself awake and stretched, letting the tensing of his muscles start the blood pumping. The interior of LS-88 was quiet except for the faint hum of various pieces of equipment and the murmur of the environmental systems. It should also have been pretty dark, but there was a glow from the pilot's seat. Probably what woke me up. He glanced around. To his surprise, not only were Francisco and Maddox asleep, but the [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Odyssey: Chapter 5
June 1, 2016 By Leave a Comment
The biggest problem they faced right now was power... ----- Chapter 5. "You sure it's safe there, Sergeant?" "Sure I'm sure," he answered, focusing again at the indicator in his retinal display. "The 300M's got real good shielding. Barely above background levels outside the shell, even when operating. Right now she's down, so the only way it'd be dangerous is if I cracked the shell open and she was still hot inside. I only see about twenty-five service hours indicated on the system, so the lining's [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Odyssey: Chapter 3
May 27, 2016 By Leave a Comment
The castaways had been forced to a very difficult decision... ------ Chapter 3. Tavana stared at the screen, where Lieutenant Haley and the severed boarding tube from Outward Initiative were dwindling out of sight, and felt cold horror spreading through him. He'd seen the readouts, known how bad LS-88 was damaged, but this – a living person, now cast away into the endless void so that they could get some systems back online – hammered home the terrible situation in a way that no words could have. He found himself shaking [ Continue reading... ]
Castaway Odyssey: Chapter 2
May 25, 2016 By 1 Comment
Our new cast was in a sticky situation... Chapter 2. "Sergeant!" came a half-panicked call from above, and Samuel Campbell turned from the mostly-unresponsive board. "You see something, Xander?" "It's… It's Pearce Haley, Sergeant!" "What?" Of all the answers he'd expected, that hadn't been one. Given the timing, a part of him had thought that Pearce might have been killed at the interface, but the idea that she was just outside… "Is she alive? Her suit intact?" "Yes, sir." Alive? And outside? [ Continue reading... ]
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