The wave of freezing cold air that hit her when she opened the hatch felt like being burned all over again. She screamed and shielded her eyes with her blistered, bleeding arms.
writing
Mexican Wave: Chapter Two
“Have you ever heard the expression: ‘All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun?’” said the woman behind the desk on the tv screen who was, yes, yet another of her. Jason shook her head. She was in what Cass had called “re-orientation”, a sort of untraining course where the only lesson was to sit still and listen. “Well. You are the girl, and I have the gun. Do I make myself clear?”
Mexican Wave: Chapter One
“Ah, Jason!” he said, and vanished into the green again. The way the light refracted through the water vapour in the air, it seemed to be coming from all sides. Then there was the sound of a heavy switch being thrown and a loud extractor fan whirred into life. The vapour billowed into the small box vents that dotted the ceiling, and Jason wondered how powerful a fan you would need to take the air with them. Someone was probably working on that on one of the deeper sub-levels.
“You’re probably wondering why I called you here,” said Paine, putting a test tube full of the vapour in a rack. It seemed to be lit from within by the same green light. “I won’t mince words with you: We’ve made contact.”
“See You Around, Victrix Lament”: Chapter One
The first shot thumped through the space her head had been a second earlier, as she rolled into the room and pulled her force pistol from her belt. Black outfits. Armoured. No markings. Kill squad. She swept the legs out from under one of them and let fly with a shot at his buddy, who ducked behind Omar’s desk. Ugh. These things were never easy…
Message Intercept: Chapter Four
Where there’s water there’s plants too, and in some of the deeper caverns a kind of blind cave rat, so I haven’t starved. I’m getting ahead of myself. I knew that the fall into the pit was long enough to put an end to me instantly and I closed my eyes and prepared for the inevitable…
Message Intercept: Chapter Three
The wailing noise went on, and then pounding at the entrance of the building.
“We have to open it!” Sita said, darting towards the barred door. But the PhD student and I caught her.
“If you open that door we’ll never be able to close it. We’ll all go through that same horrible process. You’ve seen the pictures,” they said.
“Sita… I’m sorry,” I murmured, letting her go. She fell into the seat of one of the nearby benches and sobbed, her head in her hands.
We all stood still and silent, listening to the wailing until it stopped…
Message Intercept: Chapter Two
There was much shuffling of feet in the large group by the side of the pit. Nobody wanted to be the closest to the edge, even though that was still more than a meter away.
Because of the way the ground dropped away, and the fact that scans had established that the hole led down into a much larger chamber than had been thought, the only way to let the exploration team down was on a single long safety rope. They stood by the edge, a human daisy-chain, loaded up with handlamps, picto-cams and survey gear. The last one was a scrawny apprentice I had seen shadowing the filmmaker, and he carried strapped across his body a bulky film camera similar to the ones that were capturing the occasion from intervals around the edge of the pit.
The winch rumbled into life, and it was time. Both the survey team and the rest of us began waving for the cameras. First the five of them were hoisted into the air, as prelude to their long descent. I watched them swing back and forth, watched the pulley at the top of the rope shake. It was rated for this- hell, it was designed for this- but still I felt a gnawing horror that it would just snap and send the five spinning into the void…
Message Intercept: Chapter One
“If you are receiving this message, I am already dead.”
How I wish that I could begin this recording with that old cliche! But in all likelihood I am very much alive by the time you hear this. Though it would doubtless be better for all if it weren’t the case.You remember, don’t you, how this all started? Ah, maybe not. Maybe many years have passed. No matter. I remember it as clearly as if it were painted on the wall before me as I record this message, instead of these obscure and crude images. It began, for me, with the journey to Malocus on the Carter. It was an old ship, full of its own kind of creaks and groans that no other ship had…
They Worship It: Chapter Four
The water was freezing cold when I smashed into it. I tasted salt and realised that this was more than just a tank. With my eyes closed tight I reached into the pocket of my overcoat and removed the object Apollo had planted there. I felt a mouthpiece, a mask. With every fibre of my being I had to fight the instinct to keep my mouth shut tight and forced the breather in there. I fumbled blindly, trying to find the vent to get the water out of my mouth. I depressed the little button and an explosion of bubbles came flooding out of the front of the mask. Now breathing normally, I steeled myself and opened my eyes…
A Twisted Game of Cat and Cat: Chapter One
The name of the dead man was Maximilian Bradley. Not that he knew he was dead yet. The blinking green name stood out on the black screen like a neon sign over a dive bar. Underneath it was a number with too many zeroes at the end of it. Geist had heard of Bradley, of course. Who hadn’t? He sipped the honey-coloured liquor from his glass and contemplated. This was a chance to make history. Of course, if his name showed up anywhere in the history books it would be curtains for him.
The Write Stuff 