Weekend Writing Warriors – Return to Civilization 3

Welcome friends, followers, and Weekend Writing Warriors!

Continuing with snippets from my science fiction story ‘Return to Civilization.’ Andy is a space prospector who’s just returned home with the co-ordinates of a ‘jackpot’ planet.

Snippet 1 Snippet 2

As he approached Check-in, the communicator sprang to life again. “Unidentified vessel, match our course at a distance between 100 meters and 5 kilometres. Do you understand, and will you comply?”

“Yes, this is the Yukon Stranger, acknowledging receipt and I will comply. Hey, is Rebecca Stern still working there?” Becky’s name brought back memories of warm nights and cold days; she’d asked him to stay and move in with her, but he couldn’t resist the temptation to go prospecting again, looking for his big score. . .

“Query not recognized. Term ‘Rebecca Stern’ unknown.”

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Weekend Writing Warriors – Return to Civilization 2

Welcome friends, followers, and Weekend Writing Warriors!

Continuing with snippets from my science fiction story ‘Return to Civilization.’ Andy is a space prospector who’s just returned home with the co-ordinates of a ‘jackpot’ planet.

Snippet 1

“Greetings, outgoing vessel. This is the Yukon Stranger, incoming. I hope your check-out wasn’t stressful.”

There was a long pause, and Andy wondered if anybody was listening. Then a gruff answer came. “Intraship messaging within the border zone for non-emergency calls is a clear violation of protocol, Yukon Stranger.”

“Sorry. Last time I checked out, it wasn’t against the rules to message an outgoing ship, inquire about their destination and wish them good luck.” But that had been a long time ago.

“Understood, Yukon Stranger.”

Visit the other Weekend Writing Warriors at http://www.wewriwa.com/.

Weekend Writing Warriors – Return to Civilization 1

Welcome friends, followers, and Weekend Writing Warriors!

I’m going to start snippets from a new story this week, one that I just submitted to a magazine a few weeks ago. These eight sentences are from the start, and I don’t think they need any set-up. (I hope.)

Andy pressed the red button and the stars popped back into existence around his ship, with Sol visible as a distant yellow marble. It had taken him twelve years of solitary wandering, but he’d found a jackpot: a beautiful planet perfect for human settlement, already growing great food, with uranium and silver deposits ready to mine. The bounty would be enough to set him up for life on any planet he liked. He might even go back to Jackpot once it was through its pioneer years–even if they wouldn’t let him call it Jackpot.

First things first; he had to stay awake through check-in. The radar display on the flight console showed two blips. One was drifting near the edge of the display; the other was quite a bit closer, accelerating vaguely in his direction.

He turned the radio on.

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