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 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... ]
Spheres of Influence: Deleted Chapter 2
June 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Leading up to the actual snippeting of the main book, I'm posting these chapters which were the original start of the novel. Now we get to see some things from Simon's point of view... ----- Chapter 2. What the heck was that about, Simon? Gabrielle's encrypted transmission was puzzled and a bit worried. He sounded positively jumpy. And Marc's never jumpy. She paused a moment. Except… Yes, except. Hold that thought. Once we're back in my own offices I can feel secure. Because I think Marc has [ Continue reading... ]
Spheres of Influence: Deleted Chapter 1
June 3, 2013 By 5 Comments
For health and other reasons, I haven't been able to write up a bunch of my usual posts. However, with Spheres about to go for main snippets, I realized I had a few other pieces which can be posted. These deleted chapters are basically what the "What Has Come After" section of the intro were drawn from. The editors felt -- quite correctly -- that these slowed up the opening of the book before getting to some Neat New Stuff. However, they also have a lot of deetail which is now no longer in the book. Some of you may find this stuff [ Continue reading... ]
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