14d (edited) • Snippets
From "Proxima Bound"
I've got this sci-fi novella that I'm told doesn't know what it wants to be. A couple of scenes are too much for YA, apparently. I could soften or remove them and I might have a marketable YA thing.
Anyway, its set on a generational star ship, crawling towards Proxima Centauri. The characters in the story will never make it there, because its going to take another hundred years at least. I thought that might be interesting to explore. Just imagine your whole life and existence played out on board a ship going somewhere you'll never see. That would be enough of a story in itself. (kinda like that movie "Passengers" but my story is quite different). But apparently good stories need conflict and tension, and yadda yadda... so...
There's been a reactor meltdown, way back in the past that's isolated the people living in the rear of the ship from the those in the front. And those in the front have succumbed to a pair of vampires, whose predecessors sneaked on board back when the ship left Earth generations ago. Because... who doesn't like vampires in space, right? lol
We have a heroine by the name of Thief, who earned the nickname by being small and savvy enough to sneak into the front of the ship and steal stuff that her community at the back needs to survive. And we have our villains, the vampire siblings. Sebastian and Bianca. The other main character is the ship's AI, Mary. She is just a floating voice coming from speakers in every part of the ship.
Here's a little scene with Sebastian and Bianca, both somewhat unhinged.
----
Deck 11. Front section C. Bianca’s boudoir
Sebastian stood in front of the full-length mirror, inside Bianca’s cavernous walk-in wardrobe. He performed a twirl in the pretty pink frock and blew himself a kiss.
“Delightful! Now, which shoes, do you think, Mary?”
Mary, constrained by her programming, had no choice but to cooperate. “White pumps, of course. But I don’t see the point of this Sebastian.”
“You don’t see the point of looking nice?” Sebastian asked as he scanned his sister’s shoe racks, “that’s because you have no physical form.”
“Touché.”
“Sebastian, are you in my suite again?” Bianca called from down the corridor.
“Oh, shit!” Sebastian looked around for a place to hide. But standing amongst the clothes racks, with his shaven calves still showing under the frock, was beneath him. Instead, he played it cool and stood there picking imaginary fluff off his shoulder.
Bianca arrived in the doorway; her face as red as the blood in the wine glass she held. “I hope for your sake, brother, you’re not also wearing my panties!” she said, through gritted teeth.
“I am not. They wouldn’t accommodate me. I do so love this frock, though. Can we swap? You take something from my wardrobe.”
“And why would I want anything from your ghastly wardrobe? Now put my clothes back this instant before you ruin them.”
“Fine, I’ll make my own pink frock. Be better than this one anyway!” Sebastian lifted the garment over his head, revealing his pale, stark, nudity underneath.
Bianca shrieked “Oh, God, I’ve gone blind! Get out, now!” She kicked her brother in the bare backside as he beat a hasty retreat. " Mary, can’t you lock him out of my suite?”
“I’m afraid not Bianca. You both have the highest-level access to all areas.”
Bianca took a sip from her glass to help calm her mood. The blood from Mister Campbell’s femoral artery zinged against her tongue. “Yummy. Tastes good! Not as good as sucking it from him, but it will do.”
“Just as well,” Mary answered, “you can’t keep sinking your teeth into the humans. Too many puncture wounds will invite infection, even in our sterile sections of the ship. Incidentally, that wine glass is exposing the blood to a lot of air. The anticoagulant won’t work for long. Can you not drink it from a tube?”
“No, Mary, I cannot! Because I've got a thing known as class. You wouldn’t understand.” Bianca swirled the glass before draining the whole thing in one gulp.
Mary sighed. “Oh yes, very classy.”
---
2
3 comments
From "Proxima Bound"
Suggested communities
Powered by